Of The Same Team
by SasukeUchiha2117
Summary: What if Kakashi and Naruto switched? What if Kakashi was on Team 7 as a gennin and Naruto was the jounin? What would that change? What would happen between him and Sasuke (Sasuke and Naruto would always fight, but would that be different)? Read more to find out! (WARNING! GUY X GUY)
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Prologue - Team 7

A new team had been assembled. They called themselves team 7...or team Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki, a jounin ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village had been assigned to lead three gennin – Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake. He was told that he'd meet the three today in one of the class rooms. He was walking down the hall to hear them talking.

"Hey...uh...Sasuke?" A girl said.

"*Sigh* what is it Sakura?" One of the boys said.

"Maybe later would you wanna-?"

"Le'me stop you right there. I don't want to go anywhere later...sorry, but I'm busy later."

"Doing what?" Another boy asked.

"Is that any of your business Kakashi?"

"Kinda because you're my team mate starting today."

Sasuke sighed. "To me it's none of your business." He said coldly.

Naruto opened the door to see them all stop and look at him.

The pink-haired girl was the first to speak to him. "Are you our teacher?"

Kakashi sighed and looked rather irritated. "Why else would he be here?"

Sasuke looked at Kakashi and muttered. "I was just gonna say that."

"You three come with me."

"Yes sir..." They said as they followed their new teacher.

Naruto took them to the roof of the academy. "Alright. How about we start with introductions then."

"Introductions?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah. Stuff like your name, things you like and things you hate, hobbies, and dreams for the future. Stuff like that."

"Oh ok, but why don't you demonstrate; just so we can see how it's done."

Naruto sighed. "Alright. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. Things I like and things I hate, well I don't feel like telling you that. As for hobbies, I have many hobbies. My dreams for the future...I haven't really given it much thought."

"Well that wasn't much...all we know is his name." Kakashi said under his breath.

"Ok...you one the right. You're first."

"My name is Kakashi Hatake. I don't really like or dislike anything. I don't really think about my dreams for the future, and I train in my spare time."

"So would that be your hobby?"

"Sure..."

"Alright then. You on the left."

"My name is Sakura Haruno. The things I like are...well...the PERSON I like is...my dreams for the future..." She said; each time she was going to say something she's giggle.

"And your dislikes?"

"People who annoy me."

"_I guess she's got her head in the clouds most of the time..."_ The jounin thought. "Alright then..." He said before sighing. "You in the middle."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. It doesn't matter what I dislike because I don't particularly LIKE a lot of things." The raven-haired boy started.

Sakura sulked a little; making Kakashi smirk under his mask.

"_I bet I can prove you wrong Uchiha!"_ Kakashi thought.

"I don't have many hobbies, and what you call a dream, I call an ambition: I'm going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone..."

"_Well that's a little dark..."_ Kakashi thought.

"_Sasuke's so cool!"_ Sakura thought as she looked at Sasuke with a red-ish face.

"_Now that's different..."_ Naruto thought. "Alright. We'll have our first training session tomorrow."

"Training? We already did that! That's how we got here!" Sakura said with a confused face.

"Well...if I tell you why...you're not gonna like it." The man said with a smirk.

Sasuke gulped; unnoticed.

"Tell us." Kakashi insisted.

"Of the twenty-eight graduates, only nine will actually become gennin. The others will be sent back to the academy.

Sakura's eyes widened. _"If I'm sent back to the academy then that means I might be with Sasuke again! I have to pass!"_

"Be at the training ground at 5:00 am with your ninja gear, and don't be late."

"Yes sir!" The three said.

"And another thing before you go..."

They turned to him.

"Don't eat breakfast...or you'll puke."

They nodded and left

Sasuke was walking home; which caught the attention of Kakashi.

"Hey!"

Sasuke looked up at one of the buildings to see his white-haired team mate. "Hey!"

Kakashi jumped down and landed on his feet next to Sasuke. "Where are you going?"

"Home why?"

"Why you going home so early?"

"Sakura..."

"Ah I see..."

"Why did you have something else in mind?"

"Kinda..." Kakashi said before he saw their teacher appear behind Sasuke.

"What?"

"Naruto-sensei is behind you..."

Sasuke turned to see that Kakashi was right.

"Are you two busy?"

"No why you need something sensei?"

"Yeah...I was gonna do a training exercise later instead. I already told Sakura, but I wanted to let you two know. Be at the training grounds in ten minutes, and sorry about the whole first part..." He said with a sheepish smile before disappearing.

Sasuke and Kakashi sighed. "I guess we're doing something else..." Kakashi said before leaving to get his stuff.

Sasuke went home and grabbed his ninja gear and headed to the training ground early. He got there first and decided to practice with his kunai knives.

Kakashi showed up and saw his team mate practicing. He quietly walked over and put his stuff down.

Sasuke never noticed Kakashi was there and continued to practice. He hit logs and dummies dead center with a quick flick of his arm.

Kakashi watched as the raven-haired teen formed hand signs and grew curious. He saw the knives that had hit the targets Sasuke had been aiming at fly back into his hands. _"What the?! Where'd he learn that one?!"_ He though.

Sasuke put his kunai knives away and turned around; only to be startled by the unknown presence of his team mate. He jumped a little; making the other boy laugh silently. "W-when did you get here?"

"A little while ago actually, but I didn't wanna interrupt your training so I didn't say anything."

"Oh..."

Sakura showed up. "Hey you two!"

Sasuke sighed in annoyance. "Great..." He said under his breath.

Kakashi smirked after hearing Sasuke's remark.

Sakura walked over to them and put her stuff down. "So what were you two just talking about?"

"Nothing." Kakashi said plainly.

"Oh...o-ok..."

Naruto appeared in a cloud of smoke. "Hey guys. Glad u showed up. Let's get started shall we?"

Sasuke and Kakashi sat on the logs while Sakura sat on the ground.

"Now. Our training today will have to with getting these from me." He said holding up a pair of bells.

"_How come there're only two if there are three of us on a team?"_ Kakashi and Sasuke thought.

"Your task is simple: take these bells from me before lunch. Those who don't get a bell before lunch don't eat and fail the test. You can use anything from kunai knives to shuriken windmills, and that includes ninjutsu and teijutsu. When I say start you may begin. Any questions?"

Sasuke caught the reason for the two bells. "Yeah I've got one."

"Yes Sasuke."

"Why are there only two bells?"

"Simple. Someone is going to be tied to that log by the end. Weren't you listening?"

Sasuke sighed instead of talking back.

"Now...if there are no other questions...then you may begin!"

The three disappeared into the trees.

Kakashi found Sasuke. "Hey...what's the plan here?" He whispered.

"First we find Sakura, and then I'll explain everything then."

Kakashi nodded before he and Sasuke flew through the trees until Sasuke spotted Sakura in the bushes.

Sasuke swung down into the bushes with extreme light-footedness; not even making a single sound. He tapped her.

She was about to scream when she turned, but she stopped herself when she saw Sasuke. "S-Sasuke..." She whispered.

"Shhh. I've got a plan."

Kakashi landed next to him.

"Ok then what is it?"

After a couple minutes of talking of a plan, the three gennin hid in their positions.

"Are you comin' out or what?" Naruto said sounding a little annoyed and impatient.

Sasuke smirked. _"All according to plan..."_ He thought as he gave Sakura a signal to pull the first trap.

The first trap set of a dozen kunai to fly in his direction.

Naruto dodged it.

Sakura moved quickly to a new hiding spot.

Kakashi smirked as he watched Naruto's foot fall into the second trap - the common foot-in-the-rope-trap.

Naruto was dragged up and hanged by his foot. "Oh very funny guys! How 'bout you come out and actually FIGHT for once!" He said as he cut himself down; only to land in another rope trap.

The three were trying not to laugh when Naruto cut himself down again.

The jounin sighed. _"Their better than I thought..."_ He thought as he looked around.

Kakashi nodded at Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded back and moved to his position – the water attack.

Kakashi jumped into plain sight with Sakura.

"Oh so NOW you show yourselves, but where's Sasuke huh?" _"Unless he doesn't understand this exorcise, but then...who else would set the traps?"_ The man thought. He looked around quickly in case he could spot the last member of his team, but Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.

Sasuke waited underwater for his signal from one of his team mates.

"So what's your next move? Are you just gonna stand there? You have about ten minutes left to get a bell...you know that right?"

"Yup." Kakashi and Sakura said.

"_That's my signal!"_ Sasuke thought as he created many other clones and attacked Naruto from the water.

Naruto whacked the clones away.

Sasuke had three other clones waiting along with Kakashi and Sakura.

The three gennin attacked the jounin all at once.

Naruto smiled. _"So they DO understand..."_ He thought as they pinned him to the ground.

"Ha! We got you sensei!" Sakura cheered.

Sasuke and Kakashi smirked.

"So you did...together..."

"Huh?"

Sasuke looked at Sakura. "That's why I had you two help me with the plan. It was a team effort."

"Oh! So THAT'S why there were only two bells! To test us!"

Naruto smiled. "Exactly."

The gennin got off their teacher's back.

"You three pass."

Sakura cheered as Kakashi and Sasuke high-fived.

"Alright!" Kakashi and Sasuke cheered.

Naruto smiled. "Team 7 starts their first mission tomorrow."

"Sweet!" Sakura said.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 1 – The Mission

The four had gone home for the rest of the day.

Sasuke woke up the next morning, and surprisingly didn't get sun in his eyes. One onyx eye opened to see a shadow looming over him. He looked up slightly to see that it was his team mates.

"Hey there sleepy head." Kakashi said with a smirk.

Sasuke groaned and turned over. "What do you want?" He said; his voice muffled by his pillow.

Sakura giggled. "We have our first mission today silly."

Sasuke sighed into his pillow and sat up. "I almost forgot..."

Sakura grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of bed. "Then c'mon! Get dressed so we can go! Kakashi help me!"

Kakashi took his other wrist and helped Sakura pull Sasuke out of bed.

Sasuke walked over to his closet and picked out something to wear. "You didn't need to do that by the way...I could've gotten out of bed myself."

"Yeah ok, but did you want us to wait outside?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes please." He said plainly as he looked for something to wear.

"_Drat!"_ Kakashi thought as he nodded and walked out of his team mate's room with Sakura.

Sasuke picked out a pair of black shorts and a navy blue shirt. He put the rest of his ninja gear on and decided to tie a trio of scrolls to his waist. He sighed and looked into the mirror. _"It's not a bad outfit. I like it."_ He thought as he made sure nothing was wrong with what he was wearing.

Kakashi poked his head in to see Sasuke fixing bandages on his arms leading to his hands, but that was normal. He also saw the Uchiha lift his shirt a little to fix bandages that had small blood stains. _"What the? Did he get hurt and not say anything?! Why would he not say anything about that?"_ Kakashi thought as he turned back to see Sakura.

"Well?" She asked whispering.

Kakashi just leaned against the opposite wall from Sasuke's bedroom door and remained silent.

"What did you see Kakashi?" She asked; again in a whisper.

"Nothing unusual if that's what you're asking..." He said; trying to get Sakura to stop asking questions.

"Oh..."

The two jumped a bit when they heard Sasuke's door open the rest of the way.

"Let's go..." Sasuke said; trying not to sound like he's in pain. _"I hope neither of them find out..."_ He thought as he walked behind them as they left his house.

After Sasuke locked the door, the three set out to find their teacher.

"Where do you think he is?" Sakura asked.

"_Great more questions..."_ Kakashi thought with a sigh.

"Something wrong Kakashi?"

"Nope. I'm just thinking is all..."

"Ok."

"He's probably waiting outside the Hokage's mansion." Sasuke said as he pointed to the large building.

"That would seem right..." Kakashi agreed.

They headed to the Hokage's mansion and met Naruto at the front door.

"Hey you three." He said with a bright smile.

Sasuke rubbed his neck. "How are you so smiley this early in the morning?"

"I used to wake up earlier when I was younger."

"Oh."

"The Hokage's waiting for us to show up so let's go.

The three gennin nodded and followed their teacher to the Hokage's office.

Naruto knocked and then soon after heard someone on the other side of the door say to enter.

They did as they were told and opened the door and walked in.

Sasuke quietly shut the door behind him and joined his group.

Kakashi vigilantly watched the Uchiha; not seeing any signs of him being injured. _"Hm...he hides it well. I still don't understand why he'd wanna hide something like this..."_ Kakashi thought before looking away from Sasuke.

"You've been assigned to be escorts for a bridge builder in the Hidden Mist Village. He is to be escorted back to his village so that he can finish his bridge."

"Yes sir!" The four said.

The bridge builder walked into the room and waited for them. "So these are my escorts huh?"

"That's right." Kakashi said calmly.

"Hm...alright then. Let's get going."

"Before we go, if I may sir, what's your name?" Sakura asked politely.

"The name's Tazuna." He said as he walked to the door.

"That's a nice name." She said with a smile.

"_Kiss up..."_ Sasuke and Kakashi thought.

Team 7 followed the bridge builder and escorted him home; at least until they were ambushed, trapping Naruto in a coil of chains.

"Sakura! Guard Tazuna! Kakashi and I got this one!" Sasuke said.

Sakura nodded and did as her team mate told her to do.

Sasuke and Kakashi first freed their teacher and continued to fight.

Kakashi had the two assailants distracted while Sasuke put them in their place...literally.

Sasuke tossed a shuriken first to pin their chains to a tree, and then threw a kunai to lock them there.

Kakashi's eyes widened. _"Whoa. He doesn't act like he's injured at all!"_ He thought.

Sasuke landed in a handstand form and pushed himself up to his feet.

Naruto did the rest of the work by chaining the assailants up with their own chains.

Kakashi saw a cut on Sasuke's arm. "H-hey! Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked over at Kakashi. "What?"

"Your arm!"

Naruto looked over. "Hm?"

"It's just a cut. Chill would ya Kakashi?" Sasuke said calmly.

"Sasuke you realize that these chains had poison in them right? If it spreads to your veins you could die." Naruto said as he walked over to him.

Sasuke looked at the cut and sighed. "Fine then..." He said before sucking out the poison himself.

Sakura looked over at Kakashi and then to Sasuke. _"What is going on between those two?"_ She thought.

Kakashi watched his team mate and finally decided to go through his bag and find his bandages. _"Ah! There you are!"_ He thought as he pulled the roll of gauze out. "Catch." He said before throwing the roll to Sasuke.

Sasuke caught the roll of bandages and wrapped the cut with it. He used a kunai to cut it after he'd wrapped the cut with enough bandage. He tied it under some of the folds and tossed the role back to Kakashi. "Thanks."

Kakashi nodded and put the bandages back into his bag. _"He wraps his injuries like he's done it a million times...unless he was taught..."_ Kakashi thought.

Naruto walked over to Tazuna. "Mr. Tazuna? You never mentioned that you had assailants after you. That would have classed this mission at a higher level. These kids are only gennin, they're not entirely ready for missions like these."

Tazuna sighed. "I know, but those things are expensive to pay for!"

"_Great...not only does he lie about stuff, but our client is CHEAP too..."_ Sasuke thought before glancing over at Kakashi.

Kakashi was watching Naruto and Tazuna talk; totally oblivious to the fact that he was being watched himself.

Naruto sighed. "You're lucky that I don't just walk back and let someone else take the mission. We'll help you, but we're doing it our way and no one will say otherwise."

"Alright then. Thank you, now let's get going before more show up."


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 2 – The Truth

As the five traveled down their path to the Hidden Mist Village they were stopped by Zabuza; an old rival of Naruto's.

"W-who's that?" Sakura asked; clearly afraid of him.

"Zabuza..." Naruto said glaring at the man standing on the hilt of his sword.

"Hello, Naruto. Long time no see...how've you been?" Zabuza asked with a sly, yet sarcastic, face.

"Tch. Like you give a damn!" Naruto said; still glaring at him. He turned to his three gennin. "I want all three of you to guard Tazuna. I'll take him on."

"Yes sir!" They said before getting positioned around the bridge builder.

Everything went by in a flash as Naruto fought against Zabuza.

Sasuke felt his abdomen burn with pain for a split second; catching Kakashi's eye. _"Either that's his arm or it's the injury he has in his abdomen..."_ The gennin thought before getting back on task.

Sasuke could help but remember that traumatic moment, receiving the very strong blow to the abdomen by getting into a fight while he was out walking.

~Flashback~

He was out walking. It was late, and he walked at night so he wouldn't be bothered. Sasuke stopped by the training field and rested by the river for a while. He heard rustling in some nearby bushes; making him immediately get to his feet to defend himself. He stood in one place, as silent as ever, with three kunai knives held in between his fingers. He waited for his attackers to reveal themselves from their hiding spots. He was a bit started by who he saw slowly walk out from the bushes; he'd never seen this person before. He stumbled back slightly. "W-who are you?"

The man chuckled. "Your enemy..." He said with a devilish smirk; making chills run up and down Sasuke's spine. "What's the matter little ninja? Are you afraid?"

Sasuke panicked a little and started to shake at the slightest.

"You are afraid aren't you?" He mocked.

"Why are you here?"

"To test you, simple as that. If you don't pass you're already dead." He said with a menacing smile.

"_D-dead?!"_

"Are you ready for your test young ninja?"

Sasuke gulped and nodded.

~Time skip~

The man lied dead on the ground; leaving Sasuke alone in the field.

The gennin had taken a pretty bad hit to his abdomen by that man. He felt surging pain flowing through his torso as he walked back home to put some bandages on the injury. _"Ow...man this burns!"_ He thought as he wrapped it in bandages.

~ End of Flashback~

Sasuke snapped out his thoughts to see Zabuza on the ground dead. _"Those aren't vital spots...I don't think he's dead. It's probably a trick that that ninja has up his sleeve."_ Sasuke thought as he looked up at a boy perched in a tree wearing a mask.

Kakashi looked at the Uchiha with concern. "Are you okay?" He asked in a whisper.

Sasuke nodded.

"Ya sure? You don't look so good..."

"Y-yeah..."

"You wanna talk about it later?"

Sasuke nodded; an unnoticeable blush had spread across his cheeks.

Naruto walked over to them. "You three did a great job. Tazuna you should thank these kids for protecting you." He said as crossed his arms.

Tazuna sighed in relief. "Thanks to you three I'm not dead, so thanks." He said with a slight smile.

Sakura smiled.

"_Was that supposed to be a thank you?"_ Kakashi thought as he looked back at Sasuke; seeing his slight unease. _"Something's not right with him, and I'm gonna find out what."_

Naruto smiled. "Well now that that's taken care of, let's keep moving."

"Right." Sakura and Kakashi said, Sasuke stayed silent.

"_I know Sasuke's usually silent, but never this silent..."_ Naruto thought as they continued.

The five of them reached a doc and board a small boat.

"Sensei? Why do we have to go on this small boat?"

"We don't wanna attract attention to ourselves if there are assailants after Mr. Tazuna."

"Oh ok." Sakura said before the boat stopped.

"This is as far as I can take you if you want to remain undetected." The man said.

"Thanks. This will be fine anyways." Naruto said before he and the other four got out of the boat and swam. They reached the shore, Naruto pulled himself out and then pulled Sakura out.

Sakura pulled Kakashi out and smiled.

Kakashi pulled Sasuke out of the water; making Sasuke wince slightly.

"Thanks." He said; trying to hide his pain.

"Sure." Kakashi said with a gentle smile. _"Still trying to hide your pain aren't you?"_

They walked to the bridge builder's home.

"You four can stay here until your mission's complete."

"Thank you very much Mr. Tazuna." Sakura said with a bright smile.

"No problem kiddo." He said as he ruffled her hair.

She fixed her hair. "Do we get to pick our own rooms?"

"Only if you want to..." he said as he sat at the kitchen table.

Sakura looked up at Naruto. "Can we Naruto-sensei?"

"Sure, but how many rooms are their?"

"Two."

"So two people per room."

"Pick your rooms, but if there's any trouble I'm picking for you."

The three nodded.

"Sasuke can I room with you?" Kakashi asked; smirking when he saw that Sakura was just going to ask.

"I guess so."

"That means, Sakura, you can room with me."

"Okay."

"Oh and I want everyone up in the morning. I have something for you three to do for some early-morning training. Alright?"

"Yes sir." They said before walking to their rooms and put their stuff down.

Kakashi shut the door before Sasuke could walk out.

"Dude!"

"What?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"What're you talking about?"

Kakashi pinned Sasuke against the door. "You're hiding something, and I wanna know what it is."

"W-well you're hiding something too!"

"Like what?"

"You always wear a mask. Why don't you show your face for once?!"

Kakashi's eyes widened and he blushed. "You tell me what I wanna know and I'll show you my face. Deal?"

Sasuke gulped. "D-deal."

"What're you hiding from me?"

"It's not just you..."

"What do ya mean?"

"I'm hiding from the whole team because I don't want you guys to worry about me."

"We worry when we see you acting unusual like you've been acting all day, but what is it that's so bad that you have to hide from us?"

Sasuke sighed and lifted his shirt a little to show him the bandages around his abdomen.

Kakashi pretended to be shocked. "W-what happened?"

"I was walking late at night, and I stopped by the river in the training field."

"So how did it happen then?"

"Some guy showed up and said he had a 'test' for me."

"What was the 'test'?"

"I dunno, but he said if I failed I'd already be dead."

"So you passed the 'test', but how long did you fight?"

"I dunno, but it felt like hours..."

"Geez...he must've really pounded on you..."

"Yeah...pretty much. Is that all you wanted to know Kakashi?"

"One last thing..."

"What?"

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't want to make you worry so much, but I guess I was kinda wrong..."

"Yeah. I worry more if you don't tell me what's wrong." Kakashi said getting a little closer to the Uchiha.

Sasuke's cheeks started to burn a bright red. "W-what're you doing?"

"You said you wanted to see what's under my mask right?"

"W-well y-yeah, but I thought you'd just pull your mask down."

"I can't just pull my mask down, I gotta have a purpose." He said with a smirk. He got a little closer to Sasuke.

"_W-what is this feeling in my chest, and my heart is beating so fast..."_ Sasuke thought as Kakashi got a little closer and started to pull down his mask.

"_Here goes nothin'..."_ Kakashi thought as he pulled his mask all the way down to show his face. "See? I have a face." He said with a smirk.

"T-then w-what was your 'purpose'?" Sasuke stuttered.

"This..." Kakashi said before melting his lips into Sasuke's.

Sasuke's eyes widened. _"H-he...no way!"_ He thought as he tried to keep his eyes open.

"_Stop fighting your eyes...dummy..."_ Kakashi thought as he deepened the kiss by licking his lower lip.

Sasuke's eyes shut as his face turned a very deep shade of red and his ears started to turn red as well. He opened his mouth for Kakashi to explore; making the gennin smirk in his head.

Kakashi pushed Sasuke against the door so that he couldn't move; making a small moan escape from his throat. Kakashi pulled away for a moment to try to catch his breath.

The two of them caught their breath soon after.

"Was that...a moan I heard?"

Sasuke gulped and basically made himself nod.

Kakashi put his lips against Sasuke's neck and smirked. "You smell nice."

"W-what?"

"I said you smell nice." He said as he looked into Sasuke's onyx orbs.

"T-thank you, but I don't see what that has to do-" Sasuke said before he was cut off by Kakashi as he was pulled forward onto their bed.

"S-sorry...I tripped on my backpack..."

Sasuke felt a cold breeze fly up his spine; making him shiver a bit. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him; making him jump a little.

"You looked cold...sorry for startling you."

"I-it's okay..."

"Did you want me to shut the window?"

"I don't care..." He said trying not to sound phased.

"_Hm...I guess that wasn't enough to get him to open up...so now for phase two...this better work..."_ Kakashi thought as he shut the window.

Sasuke closed his eyes and had turned over to go to sleep.

Kakashi turned to see the Uchiha clan symbol instead of the young Uchiha's face. He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. "Hey I just remembered a question I forgot to ask you..."

Sasuke turned over. "What is it?" He asked; sounding a little tired.

"Why do you always act so distant from everyone else as if you hated everyone who cares about you?"

Sasuke tried to turn over; only to be stopped by an arm next to him.

Kakashi had gotten on top of him. "This is what I'm talking about. I never understood why you acted this way." He said calmly.

Sasuke looked up at Kakashi and saw how much Kakashi really cared for him. "I act this way 'cause no one understands what it's like to have gone through what I did."

"And what was that?"

"Losing my entire family to my brother."

Kakashi's eyes widened; he had heard that Sasuke lost his entire clan, but he hadn't heard who killed them. Instead of prying any further into Sasuke, he wrapped his arms around him. "I'm sorry for prying." He said; feeling a small damp spot on his shoulder. He had gotten off of Sasuke to hug him. "I'm so sorry..."

Sasuke was silent.

Kakashi looked at him after pulling away. He realized he had actually gotten him to open up, but he looked a little broken on the inside. "W-what can I do...to help you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I can see that I pried too much, I went too far, and I'm sorry. I want to help you, and to do that I need to know what you want."

"Look, I appreciate the thought, but I'm really tired, and I need to go to sleep. Besides, Naruto-sensei said that we need to be up in the morning."

"Oh yeah...I almost forgot about that."

"If you wanna know one thing...I don't wanna be alone anymore..."

"Alone? You were never alone Sasuke."

"Someone to love I mean."

"What about Sakura? She's really into you."

"Yes, but she's really annoying about it..."

"Right...what about Ino?"

"I can tell she just says she likes me to beat Sakura, but I think she actually likes Shikamaru."

"Alright...uh...what about..." Kakashi said in attempt to think out loud. "What about me?" He said with a small but sly smirk.

Sasuke's eyes widened. "W-what? Y-you, but I thought that you liked someone else...by the way you used to act around me before this mission."

"Nope. In all honesty I was just using that as a cover-up for my true feelings...for you..." Kakashi said as a blush found its way across his face; losing his smirk.

"R-really?"

Kakashi nodded.

"I kinda did the same thing with you..." Sasuke said; almost sounding like he was mumbling. He was now looking away; his face had a new blush spreading across his cheeks.

Kakashi smirked again; catching his team mate's attention.

"What're you thinking?"

"Nothing you need to worry about."

Sasuke looked a little unsure for trusting what the boy said.

Kakashi lied down next to Sasuke. "Just lay down."

Sasuke sighed and lied down next to Kakashi and turned over; his face was a little redder than when Kakashi saw it.

Kakashi turned over and wrapped his arms around Sasuke's waist; making his face turn a darker red. He started kissing the Uchiha's neck.

"K-Kakashi...w-what are you doing?"

"What does it feel like I'm doing?"

Sasuke gulped. "Y-you're k-kissing my neck. W-why?"

"Cause I like you."

Sasuke felt his heart beating quicker and quicker with every kiss that he felt on his neck. _"Of course it HAS to be the sides of my neck not the back...not that it really makes a difference, but he LIKES me?!"_ He thought as his face began to heat up.

"Turn over if you don't want me to kiss your neck..." Kakashi said; his voice a little muffled by his face being buried in the side of Sasuke's neck.

Sasuke turned over and faced a smirking Kakashi.

"_He fell for it..."_ He thought as he looked into Sasuke's eyes; no longer seeing all the hate and anger that would be there if he hadn't pried so much, and he decided to press his lips into Sasuke's.

"_A-again?! B-but..."_ Sasuke thought before he couldn't think straight.

Kakashi's smirk returned to his lips just thinking about how much of a block he's putting on the Uchiha's thoughts. He wrapped his arms around Sasuke's waist and pulled him close to his chest.

Sasuke blushed more as Kakashi continued to kiss him.

Kakashi wanted to go further like (or more than) last time, but he could feel that Sasuke was tired. He pulled away; once again catching himself staring into his team mate's onyx orbs. "W-we should get some rest..."

Sasuke nodded. "One thing..."

"What?"

"We need to make it look like nothing happened between us...unless you're okay with them finding out?"

"I-I dunno...I don't think I'm ready for them to know just yet..."

"Okay. All we have to do is turn over and face away from each other."

"Alright then..." Kakashi said before they both turned over and faced away from each other. "Hey Sasuke?"

"Yeah?"

Kakashi sat up for a moment. "C-could I kiss you...one last time?"

Sasuke matched Kakashi's level. "I don't think it'll be the last time, but yeah sure."

Kakashi gently smiled before leaning over and placing his lips against Sasuke's. _"Why can't I just leave him alone? He's tired god damn it! B-but his lips are so soft...it makes me wanna keep kissing them..."_ Kakashi thought before their lips parted. The boy lied back down with his back against his team mate's, and soon after that, both of them fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 3 – Getting Down To Business

Kakashi woke up first; seeing that their little 'plan' didn't work so well. He had turned over, in his sleep, and wrapped his arms around Sasuke's waist. The gennin mentally face-palmed. _"Is it really THIS hard NOT to touch him?!"_ Kakashi thought as he let go of his friend. He heard someone walking toward the door and turned over and pretended to sleep.

Naruto opened the door to see them still asleep. He smiled a little at the sight.

Sasuke and Kakashi were sleeping back-to-back.

Kakashi had remembered to pull his mask back up before he fell asleep, and it was a good thing too or else he'd never hear the end of it from Sakura and his own teacher.

Naruto walked over to their bed and shook Kakashi first. "Kakashi...Kakashi wake up." He whispered.

Kakashi responded with a soft groan; which basically meant 'what'; seen as how his face was buried in his pillow.

"Wake up, and do me a favor and wake up Sasuke."

"Okay..." Kakashi mumbled from in the pillow. He sat up and saw the jounin leave; making him smirk with bad ideas. He leaned over Sasuke who was sound asleep. "Sasuke...Sasuke...wake up."

Sasuke turned over to face him.

"_Better..."_ He thought. "Sasuke if you don't get up you're going to force me to take drastic measures to wake you." He threatened.

Sasuke's eyes tightened.

Kakashi leaned in to kiss his neck; only to be stopped by a hand – Sasuke's hand.

"Leave my neck alone...you've already kissed it enough for now..." He said; still sound a little but tired.

Kakashi chuckled. "Have I?"

Sasuke nodded.

Kakashi smiled and kisses Sasuke's forehead. "Get up sleepy head."

Sasuke smiled; still a hint of being tired in there. "Okay..."

They both got up and put their ninja gear on.

Sasuke tied his scrolls around his waist again.

"Did you want me to help you with uh...*ahem*?" Kakashi asked as he pointed to his abdomen.

"U-uh s-sure..."

Kakashi took the bandages off with exclusive care; trying not to hurt Sasuke. He got new bandages from his backpack and wrapped them around the almost-completely-healed-injury.

Sasuke watched as Kakashi finished wrapping the wound and cut the bandage with a kunai and tied the ends under the folds like he did with his arm yesterday. _"I guess he was watching me while I wrapped my arm up..."_ Sasuke thought as Kakashi finished.

"There...all done." He said with a smile. He quickly put his mask down and kissed his cheek. He put his mask back up just as fast as he pulled it down and opened the door.

They walked into the kitchen. _"I hope no one heard us..."_ Sasuke and Kakashi both thought.

"Morning boys." A woman said; she sounded rather cheery for the morning.

"Good morning..." They said; still a little tired.

The woman smiled and put breakfast on the table.

Sakura looked over at her team mates and became curious. _"Usually I'm the last to wake up, but THESE TWO?"_ She thought before finishing her breakfast.

The rest of the team finished their breakfast and thanked the woman.

Naruto stood and cleared his throat. "Well if you're all finished then we can go."

"Go where?" Sakura asked.

"We have some training to do." He said with a smirk. "So let's get going."

"Yes sir." The three gennin said as they followed their teacher to a forest.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto threw a kunai at each gennin's foot; not trying to hit them; making them jump back a little. "We're going to practice chakra control. Use those to mark where you can get up to on one of those trees. Here, allow me to demonstrate..." He said as he formed one hand sign and walked up a tree and hung upside-down on a branch. "You can do much more than what I'm doing right now if you practice enough. Now you three try it."

The three formed the same hand sign.

Sakura ran up the tree with no problem; leaving a mark at the branch she was sitting on.

Sasuke and Kakashi looked at each other and nodded. They jumped back and ran up the tree; leaving marks halfway up the entire tree. They flipped off the tree; feeling their chakra slipping from their feet. They landed perfectly on their feet and tried again. _"I'm gonna go to the top of this tree...weather it kills me or not!"_ They thought before concentrating their chakra to their feet and running up the tree. This time they got three quarters up the tree; impressing both Sakura and their jounin teacher.

"_Well...they seem highly motivated to prove a point..."_ Naruto thought as he watched Sasuke and Kakashi try once again.

They ran up trees that were side-by-side so they could make sure that they both got to the top. The two boys had finally gotten to the top.

Kakashi sighed as he looked out over all the other trees with Sasuke on top of the tree next to him. "Wow...what a view huh Sasuke?"

Sasuke was smiling as the wind blew his hair in all sorts of directions. He looked over at him. "Yeah. Great job."

"Thanks...you too." He said with a smile.

Naruto stood on the ground now; looking up at the two boys standing atop the trees.

Sakura jumped down and stood next to her teacher. "Wow...how'd they get so good?"

"They have motivation..." He said as he smiled at Sakura. _"And each other..."_ He thought as he looked back up at them.

Sasuke looked around and saw mountains on the horizon. _"This is amazing..."_ He thought as he continued to look out over the trees with a smile.

Kakashi looked over at him; seeing something he thought he'd never see – Sasuke's genuine smile. _"He's...he's smiling, and it's not a fake one either! It's a real smile!"_ Kakashi thought before a voice snapped him from his thoughts.

"Kakashi!"

"Hm?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah...I was just thinking..."

"Okay, but we should get down...Naruto-sensei and Sakura are probably waiting for us..."

"Okay. Let's go. I'll race ya." He said with a smirk.

"Oh you're SO on!" Sasuke said as they raced down.

Kakashi and Sasuke crossed between trees like cross stitching.

Sakura watched in amazement with Naruto.

Sasuke darted from tree-to-tree leaving Kakashi in the dust. He landed perfectly on the ground minutes before Kakashi.

"_Wow...fast much?"_ Kakashi said as he landed behind him.

"Great work boys. I'm very impressed with your ability to learn quickly." Naruto said with a smile.

"Thanks sensei." Kakashi and Sasuke said at the same time.

"I think we've covered what I needed to teach you. We can continue with our actual mission tomorrow."

Sakura looked up; seeing that it was starting to get dark and the sun was setting. "Can we stay for a couple more minutes please Naruto-sensei?"

Naruto sighed. "I guess so."

"Sweet thanks." She said as she and the boys ran up into the trees.

Sasuke and Kakashi reached the treetops once again to watch the sunset; lucky that there was a branch big enough for both of them to sit on.

Sakura decided to sit lower in the trees to watch so she could get down faster, but she wished Sasuke was with her. She sighed. _"I wish Sasuke would sit with me...that would make this so much better..."_ She thought before Naruto sat down next to her.

"Why aren't you up there with the boys?"

"I'd rather be able to get down faster."

"It's a better view though."

"That's okay..."

Naruto put his arm around Sakura. "He'll come around..."

Sakura blushed a little. "You think so?"

"Sure." He said with a gentle smile. He looked up to where Sasuke and Kakashi were sitting and slightly smiled.

Sasuke yawned and leaned on Kakashi's shoulder.

Kakashi looked at him and smiled. "Getting tired are we now?"

"Just a little..."

Kakashi kissed Sasuke's head and put an arm around him.

The raven-haired teen blushed and moved a little closer to the masked boy.

Kakashi moved to lean against the trunk of the tree and pulled Sasuke into his arms.

Sasuke's face got redder as Kakashi's arms tightened around his waist.

Kakashi leaned into Sasuke and got close to his ear. "Love you...Sasuke." He whispered.

Sasuke felt his face get extremely red and felt an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. _"W-what should I do? Should I say it back? Think Sasuke think, he's the only one who's actually done all of this stuff with and/or to you, he's really nice to you, he's the only one who actually notices things, and he's above all a good friend. Don't mess this up!"_ Sasuke thought before sitting up.

Kakashi looked at Sasuke with confusion. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing...I have something I need to say...to you..."

Kakashi nodded and waited for Sasuke to say what he needed.

"I-I...I love you too..."

Kakashi's eyes widened. _"He said it back?!"_ He thought as his face turned a deep shade of red. "Y-you do?"

Sasuke nodded and looked away slightly.

Kakashi smiled and pulled Sasuke back into his arms, but this time the Uchiha was facing him; making his face go darker (if that was even possible). "Prove it then." He said with a smirk.

"H-how?"

"Be creative." He said still smirking.

Sasuke pulled the snowy-haired teen's mask down and wrapped his arms around Kakashi's neck; making him blush. He leaned closer to him and made their lips melt together.

"_Why didn't I think of this before?"_ Kakashi scolded himself mentally as he took control of the kiss by wrapping his arms around Sasuke's waist and switched spots with the Uchiha; pinning him against the trunk of the tree. "My turn..." He said quietly.

Sasuke nearly slipped off the branch from the swiftness of Kakashi's movements; making both of them blush.

"U-uh...sorry...I kinda lost a little self-control there..."

"I-it's okay."

They stopped and watched the sun as it disappeared on the horizon.

Naruto saw Sakura. She looked rather upset so he gave her a warm hug.

Sakura looked up at the jounin and smiled. "Thanks sensei..." She whispered and closed her eyes.

Naruto smiled and looked up at Sasuke and Kakashi. He barely see them, but he vaguely could make out their figures; seeing them together on that branch. He saw the top of the figures merge; making his eyes widen a little as he didn't want to catch Sakura's attention. _"I-I never knew...this'll be a shocker for Sakura. Poor girl will have her heart broken..."_ Naruto thought.

It started to get too dark to stay out any longer and Naruto got Sakura down after she fell asleep.

Sasuke looked down and saw the jounin jumping down and nudged Kakashi. "Hey...Kakashi."

"What?" He said; sounding a bit tired.

"We should go...Naruto-sensei is already leaving..."

"R-right..." He said before he and Sasuke stood on their branch.

Naruto looked up to see them jumping from branch-to-branch as they made their way to the ground. He watched them land on the ground, but his attention was on bushes behind the two teens.

"What?" They asked.

Naruto nodded toward the bushes; making Sasuke's eye widen. _"What's up with him?"_ He thought as he looked from Sasuke to the bushes.

Sasuke jumped back and away from the bushes and took out the same kunai knives he used for his 'test'.

Kakashi jumped back as well; only he landed behind him instead. "I take it you wanna handle this alone?"

"Whatever works is fine..." Sasuke said before he felt someone staring at him. He saw two glowing eyes from the bushes, but he didn't move from his place.

"I'm going to get Sakura to bed. Be careful you two." He said before dashing off.

Kakashi watched as Naruto disappeared out of view. "Are you sure want this one alone? I could help if you want me to."

"Like I said, whatever works is fine. If you want to fight with me go right ahead." He said; not even moving his head to talk as he stared into the glowing eyes.

"_This doesn't feel right...someone's here and watching us..."_ Kakashi thought as he began to look around.

Sasuke stepped backward; he was shaking a little.

Kakashi put an arm around him; making him jump. "It's ok...we'll take him on together."

Sasuke nodded and stood next to his snowy-haired team mate.

The bushes began to move apart as a figure stepped out from the bushes. A woman clad in a black hood and the same gear as the assailants that attacked them on their way there stood in front of them.


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 4 – The Mysterious Hooded Woman!

"Who are you?!" Kakashi demanded.

The woman stayed silent.

"_She's not gonna talk words...she want to talk through a fight."_ Sasuke thought as he studied her. He noticed that as he was studying him.

"_He seems interesting...maybe I can play around with him."_ The hooded woman thought.

Kakashi saw the intention in the woman's glowing eyes. _"She doesn't want to fight me...she wants to fight Sasuke...alone..."_ Kakashi thought as he looked at Sasuke. "She wants to fight you, and you alone."

Sasuke's eyes widened. _"That's familiar..."_ He said as he looked at the hooded woman.

She nodded and went to take her hood off but was stopped by a kunai – someone else was there.

Sasuke looked behind him to where the kunai came from and saw no one there. "What the?" He said before looking back at the woman; only to see that she was right in front of his face. His eyes widened. "W-what're you doing?!"

"I don't wanna fight. I saw how cute you and your friend were, and I wanted to try a little something." She said as she pulled her hood down. Her long black hair glistened in the light of the moon; showing that she was wearing a dark mask.

"_S-she's beautiful...she looks familiar though..."_ Kakashi thought.

Sasuke looked at her with a face full of confusion.

"What's wrong young ninja?"

"I-I'm confused." Sasuke said with a slight stutter in his voice.

"Why?" She asked; looking a little concerned.

"I-I...I dunno..." He stuttered again.

The woman giggled. "I find your stuttering very cute."

Sasuke blushed. "T-thank you, but I-I thought you'd wanna fight."

_"No, but you can put those away..." She said putting a finger on one of the knives._

_Kakashi watched her as she flirted with the raven-haired teen. __"She's trying to take him from me!"__ He thought before the woman walked over to him._

_"Is there a problem?"_

_"N-no..."_

_"Are you sure? You look a little jealous. Did you want some attention too?"_

_"A-attention?!"_

_"Yeah...attention..." She said as she started to pull Kakashi's mask down._

_"Oh no you don't!"__ Sasuke thought before throwing a kunai at her; not trying to hit her for a warning. The kunai flew over her arm; making her jerk her arm away from Kakashi. He looked over at Sasuke with confusion. "What was that for?!"_

_"Leave 'em alone!"_

_"Why would u want me to?"_

_Sasuke gulped and blushed a little more. "B-because...he's...uh...he's..." Sasuke couldn't say it; making the woman laugh a little._

_"He's what?"_

_Kakashi looked at the Uchiha and nodded; just enough for Sasuke to see it and so the woman wouldn't see it._

_Sasuke gulped again. "H-he's mine!"_

_The woman's eyes widened. __"N-no! Not Sasuke!"__ She thought._

_Naruto had put Sakura in her room. He figured she would've been asleep by now, but decided to check on her. He opened the door to see that she was gone. "Oh no!" He said before going to find her._

The woman fell to her knees. "Y-you can't be serious?!"

"I'm very serious!" Sasuke said as he crossed his arms.

Kakashi walked around the woman and went to Sasuke's side; his mask almost falling of his face.

Sasuke pulled the mask up; making Kakashi blush a little.

The woman disappeared in a cloud of white smoke; reveling a pink-haired girl; almost in tears.

"S-Sakura?!" The boys said in shock.

Naruto jumped down from a tree and saw the scene. "What happened?"

"She disguised herself as this woman in a hood. She came on to both of us!"

"What did you say?"

Sasuke gulped; afraid that if he said it again he's make Sakura cry, and he didn't really like seeing her cry.

"Kakashi what did he say?"

Kakashi didn't want to say it either; afraid of the same thing.

Naruto sighed. "Well let's get back to Mr. Tazuna's house. I want to talk to both of you when we get there!"

Kakashi and Sasuke lowered their heads. "Yes sir." They said; sounding a little ashamed of themselves.

"Good!" He said before picking Sakura up off the ground and walked back with Kakashi and Sasuke. Once again he put her in her room and made sure she was asleep. He closed the door silently and walked into the boys' room. "Now...I wanna know."

They were silent.

"What did either of you say?"

Sasuke was silent; trying put some distance between him and his teacher mentally. He could feel his teacher's rage just standing in the same room as him.

"Sasuke! What did you say?" Naruto demanded.

Sasuke looked away from his teacher; which is something he's _never_ done before.

"_S-Sasuke?! Turning AWAY from eye contact?!"_ Kakashi thought as he stood and watched as the raven-haired teen stayed extremely silent.

Naruto took his shoulders. "Sasuke look at me..."

Sasuke refused.

"Sasuke...please! Look at me! Tell me what you said that made Sakura so upset!"

Sasuke sighed and glared at his teacher; forcing his hands off his shoulders. "She overreacted to something my gut and heart told me to say!"

"And that was what?"

"She was trying to do something to Kakashi!"

"What'd she do?"

"She was pulling his mask down!"

"So what did you do and/or say to stop her?"

"I threw a kunai at her; missing obviously, and I told her what she needed to hear!"

"What did you say?!"

Kakashi sighed. "When he thought she was going to kiss me he said-" the gennin said before Sasuke cut back in.

"I told her that he was mine! Ya happy now?!"

Naruto's eyes widened. "You did what?!"

"That's right! I told what she needed to hear and that was that I love Kakashi, and there's nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, that you can do about it to make me change my mind!"

Kakashi's face turned a deep shade of red as soon as he heard the Uchiha say what he did.

Naruto sighed and opened the door.

"Besides, sensei...how the hell was I supposed to know it was her?!"

"I guess you're right...I'll talk to Sakura at another point, but in the meantime, get some rest...both of you..." He said before walking out and shutting the door.

"Is everything alright Naruto?" Tazuna asked.

"Just little things that turned into bigger things...nothing that bad."

"Yeah...kids..."

"Amen to that." Naruto said before walking to his bedroom door. "Good-night Tazuna." The jounin said before shutting the door.

"Night." He said before walking outside to sit on the front porch with Inari.

Naruto lied down next to Sakura and closed his eyes; only to be stopped by a small voice.

"Sensei?"

"Yes Sakura?"

"Did you talk to Kakashi and Sasuke?"

"Yes..."

"W-what did he tell you?"

"He told exactly what he told you...with first hesitations of course. I'm sorry Sakura...if things didn't go very well for you."

"I-it's ok...I'll get over him...I hope..."

Naruto sighed and decided to comfort the girl and pull her into a warm embrace.

Sakura blushed and hugged back. She closed her eyes and the two of them fell asleep.

Kakashi looked at Sasuke as he removed the trio of scrolls from his waist and took the rest of his ninja gear off. _"He said everything I wanted to hear...in front of both Sakura AND Naruto-sensei. I-I'm shocked...that's why he's always acted so strange around me...he HAS been hiding his feelings...wow..."_ Kakashi mused mentally. He walked over to Sasuke who was folding his shirt after he had taken it off. "S-Sasuke?"

"Hm?" He said putting his shirt on his backpack.

"I-is all that you said...really true?"

"All of what?"

"What you said to Naruto-sensei?"

"Yup...why?"

"C-cause I uh...I..." Kakashi was at a loss for words.

Sasuke looked at the snowy-haired teen. "What is it?"

Kakashi gulped and started to pull his mask down. "I-I uh..." He started as he pulled his mask down from his face; making it land around his neck.

The young Uchiha looked a bit confused, but stayed silent in case his team mate found words to say.

"I uh...really just wanted to say that I uh...I'm at a loss for words here..." He said as his head lowered to the floor.

Sasuke walked over to him, lifted his chin; making the boy blush, and pressed their lips together.

Kakashi's eyed widened as he felt the warmth of the raven-haired teen's tongue on his lower lip. His eyes slowly shut as he opened his mouth for Sasuke to explore. His face was an extremely deep red. _"N-normally it's me who starts it! When did it change?!"_ He thought before getting his chance to take charge.

Sasuke had pulled away to catch his breath; he had left both of them breathless.

"Where'd you learn?" Kakashi asked with a smirk.

"You." He said; returning the smirk.

"M-me?!"

"Yup." He said as he leaned against a wall with his arms crossed.

Kakashi moved closer to the raven-haired gennin; still smirking, and pinned him to the wall. "How 'bout another lesson then?"


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 5 – Late Night Lessons – Another interruption

Sasuke's face burned a bright red. His smirk, however, didn't falter, he smirked at Kakashi who had pinned him to the wall. _"And I thought I'd get to be in charge for once *sigh* I guess we all can't get what we want, except Kakashi of course! I guess I'll have to be proven unteachable."_ Sasuke thought.

Kakashi leaned into him; making Sasuke take in a sharp gasp as he felt a knee between his legs.

The Uchiha's face was extremely hot and red, even his ears turned red.

"So...if the kiss was lesson one, then this is lesson two." Kakashi said; a smirk still curled on his lips.

"So then what's my second lesson?"

"What do you want me to teach you?"

"Well, I wasn't given that full kiss lesson...how 'bout we pick up there?" Sasuke said lifting an eye brow.

"Heh...okay. If that's what you want..."

Sasuke nodded.

"Alright. I'll go more into depth this time so pay attention." He said before pressing his lips into Sasuke's.

Although Kakashi had told him to pay attention, Sasuke couldn't help but shut his eyes; Kakashi was such a great kisser!

Kakashi moved his tongue across Sasuke's bottom lip; making the raven-haired teen open his mouth.

Sasuke snaked his arms around Kakashi's neck; his face gradually getting deeper in the shade of red.

Kakashi leaned more into the gennin against the wall and broke this kiss, deciding to move to his neck. He clamped his mouth just below the Uchiha's chin and heard a small moan escape from the boy's throat.

Sasuke felt his face get really hot; along with his ears.

Kakashi stopped when he heard a loud scream outside.

Sasuke looked to the door and then to the white-haired teen in front of him. "W-we should go see what that was..."

"Yeah..." He said as he pulled his mask up.

They heard Naruto talking to someone just beyond the door and put their ears to the door.

"Look. All I'm saying is that this place is obviously not safe. Don't you have someplace safer for all of us to stay?"

"No. I don't Naruto. If I did we'd already be there."

They heard the front door open.

"Alright! No one moves, no one gets hurt! We're here for the bridge builder."

Sasuke look at Kakashi. "What do we do?" He asked whispering.

"Well, they think we're sleeping, so we could sneak up on them and surprise 'em."

Sasuke nodded and smirked. "Sounds good to me. Let's go." He said as he quietly went to the window. He was about to jump out when Kakashi grabbed his arm.

"We'd be too loud if we jumped. Use your chakra."

"Right...almost forgot..."

Kakashi smirked under his dark mask and concentrated his chakra to his feet.

Sasuke did the same and followed his team mate.

They got near the front door and saw the assailants. They looked at each other and nodded.

Sasuke run up the side of the house and waited for his signal.

Kakashi looked in one last time and saw the assailants tying up his unconscious teacher. He saw Tazuna on the floor; also unconscious. He threw shuriken and kunai at them.

The assailants dodged and looked around. "He said they were asleep. I think he was lying. Find them!" One said.

Two walked around the house. They checked Sakura's room first; seeing she was asleep, and shut the door.

"Check for the other two."

They opened Sasuke and Kakashi's bedroom door and saw they weren't there. "It's the other two! They're not here!"

"Well don't just stand there! Find them!"

They checked the other rooms and didn't find them. "They're nowhere to been seen..."

Kakashi finally walked through the front door.

"There's one of 'em! Grab him."

"_That's my signal!"_ Sasuke thought.

The assailants ran at Kakashi.

Kakashi moved out of the way quickly.

Sasuke swung through the door and rammed his feet into their face; sending them backwards. He landed quietly next to Kakashi. "Looking for us?"

The last assailant standing glared at the two gennin. "You two..."

Naruto slowly came to; only to see Sasuke and Kakashi fighting off the assailant.

Tazuna came to and got up. He walked over silently to Naruto and untied him.

Naruto nodded a 'thank you' and was about to step in and help, but he saw he was too late; Sasuke and Kakashi handled all three of the assailants by themselves.

Sasuke leaned against the wall and looked a little tired.

"You two did great. Thanks to you Mr. Tazuna can work on his bridge tomorrow." Naruto said with a smile.

Kakashi nodded and looked at Sasuke who had slid down the wall and is now sitting on the floor. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked up at him. "What?"

"You look worn out...c'mon..." He said holding a hand out to him.

Sasuke took the outstretched hand and stood.

Naruto smiled. "You two should head back to bed."

The two boys nodded and walked back into their room.

Sasuke took his shirt of and folded it up on his backpack and lied down in bed.

Kakashi smiled and did the same. He got in bed next to Sasuke. "You look exhausted."

"What would you expect, there was you, and then there was those three guys that attacked Tazuna and Naruto-sensei."

"There was me? What's that supposed to mean huh?"

"Yeah. You were 'teaching' me..." He said blushing a little.

Kakashi chuckled a little and put his arms around him. "Go to sleep." He whispered into his ear.

"Okay..." He whispered back. He shut his eyes and listened to Kakashi's breathing pattern and soon fell asleep.

Kakashi smiled and closed his eyes and fell asleep to the scent of the Uchiha's hair in his face.

The two boys woke up very early that morning, and it was because they were being shaken by a certain pink-haired girl.

"S-Sakura?" Sasuke asked sleepily.

She smiled lightly. "Wake up sleepy head, and wake up Kakashi too." She said before place a soft quick kiss on his forehead and walked out; shutting the door behind her.

"_Something is different about her? Well...at least she's not annoying me..."_ He thought before looking at Kakashi who was still sleeping (barely). "Kakashi."

"Mn..."

"Kakashi wake up."

"Mn...Sasuke shush..."

"No. Kakashi you need to wake up. We have work to do today." He said whispering in his ear.

Kakashi sighed and his eyes opened to see two onyx orbs staring at him. "What work?"

"We have to guard Mr. Tazuna today while he works on his bridge."

"Oh yeah..." He said with a sigh in his voice as he stretched.

Sasuke got up and walked over to his backpack.

"Hey. Can you toss me my shirt while you're over there please?" Kakashi asked rolling onto his side to face the Uchiha.

"Yeah sure." Sasuke said before picking up the shirt and tossing it to him. "Here catch."

Kakashi caught the shirt and put it on. "Thanks."

"No problem." He said as he pulled his shirt over his head.

"Ya know..." Kakashi started before walking over to the raven-haired teen and wrapping his arms around his waist. "You don't have to put a shirt on." He said; smirking under his mask.

Sasuke blushed; being able to see the smirk under his mask.

There was a knock at their door. "Boys are you up?"

"Yes Naruto-sensei." They said at the same time.

"Good. Hurry up!"

"Yes sir!" They said before putting their ninja gear on.

Sasuke tied his trio of scroll around his waist and put his headband around his neck this time.

Kakashi fixed his sword into place on his back and tied his headband on his head. He looked over at Sasuke and noticed that his headband was around his neck instead of on his forehead. He walked over and took it off his neck. "You have your headband in the wrong spot. You must still be sleepy."

Sasuke watched as his headband moved from around his neck to his forehead; pushing his bangs out of his face. "Wha-?"

"You'll thank me later let's go." He said tossing a bag to Sasuke – his backpack, and it was closed.

Sasuke looked confused, but nodded and followed his team mate out the door to meet the others.

Naruto looked at them. "There you two are. Now we need to go over a couple things so listen up you three."

The gennin nodded and waited for what their teacher had to say.

"Now. We're going to be on the job from this point on. We are to guard Mr. Tazuna and his co-workers and let them finish their bridge. If there is any trouble then you are all to be on your guard at all times and don't let any enemy or bridge worker out of your sights. Do I make myself clear?"

"You got it sensei." Sakura said.

Sasuke and Kakashi simply nodded; indicating that they got it.

Team 7 walked with Tazuna to the bridge.

"You can watch from there." Tazuna said; pointing to a concrete bench.

"I'll do the directing, but it was a nice gesture." Naruto said before clearing his throat. "Sakura I want you stationed over there at the bench, Sasuke, down there towards the end of the bridge, Kakashi I want you to be with Mr. Tazuna at all times."

The three gennin nodded and got to their positions.

Sasuke felt something very strange, like a massive amount of chakra. _"Something's not right here...a huge mass of chakra, and it's heading this way!"_ He thought before running to Naruto. "Naruto-sensei!"

Naruto looked and saw Sasuke running to him. "What is it Sasuke?"

"Something's not right."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm picking up a massive amount of chakra headed in our direction."

Naruto thought for a moment.

Kakashi gave Sasuke and Sakura a worried look.

Sakura returned the look.

Sasuke returned the look as well; only to be shaken from standing by an explosion. He landed on his back; seen as how the explosion was nearest to him; he had been blown backwards and skidded a little after landing on his back.

Naruto had forgotten to warn Sasuke; he felt it was going to happen the second before it hit.

Sakura, Kakashi, and Tazuna ran to Sasuke.

Sasuke had small burns on the exposed parts of his arms and one on the exposed part of his left leg.

"Sasuke? Sasuke!" Kakashi said shaking him slightly. He knew that this put the team at a disadvantage; without Sasuke, no one would know where the large mass of chakra was!

Naruto walked over; only to stop in his tracks when he saw that because he didn't warn the raven-haired teen, he got burned from the post-explosion blast.

Sasuke winced and gritted his teeth as he tried to sit up.

Kakashi helped him. "Easy there big guy...don't over exert yourself."

Sasuke's eyes slowly opened; reveling a (level 2) bright red sharingan. He stood normally as if nothing happened. "The massive amounts of chakra are over there..." He said pointing to where the bridge starts.

"_What the hell?!"_ Kakashi thought. _"His eyes...the Sharingan..."_

Tazuna looked extremely surprised. _"To take that kind of injury and just stand up and act like nothing happened...plus those eyes of his...he's something else..."_

Naruto walked forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to act tough all the time ya know, everyone has their weak points."

"My 'weak point' is not a burn from a post-explosion blast..."

Mist started to cover the ground.

"_This mist...it can't be..."_ Naruto thought.

"_I knew it all along!"_ Sasuke thought.

"Sasuke...what's wrong?"

"I knew it from the beginning...when we first ran into him...he was never dead."

"How'd you figure that?"

"None of the senbon hit crucial points in his body. He was only temporarily unconscious, and the fact that the person who dealt with his body didn't do it right then and there; he took the body out of our sights." Sasuke explained.

The two saw two shadows in the distance.

Naruto looked to Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded and got ready to fight.

Kakashi and Sakura guarded Tazuna. "Go for it you two!"

The two nodded.

The figures approached them, and the mist cleared enough so that they could be seen.

"Hello Naruto...it's been a while." Zabuza said with a smirk.

"You're supposed to be dead..." Naruto said as he glared at the other man.

"Haku...I'm counting on you to take down the brat next to him."

The boy nodded. "Consider it done..."

Sasuke glared at the boy and readied a weapon.

Naruto and Zabuza stood back to give their younger apprentices room to fight.

"Go for it kiddo. He's all yours." Naruto whispered.

Sasuke nodded and the fight between him and Haku began.

At first Haku had Sasuke on the edge; with his one-handed hand signs he was able to keep Sasuke on his toes; at least until he saw that Sasuke was able to keep up with him.

"_I can't lose to you, but you're quick for someone of your stature..."_ Haku thought as he jumped backwards and away from the shuriken Sasuke was throwing. He stopped; not seeing Sasuke anywhere.

Sasuke appeared behind Haku and their weapons collided once again.

"Heh this won't work out for you if you keep this up." Haku said with confidence.

"Don't sell me so short." Sasuke said before sending a kunai in the boy's direction.

Haku ducked; only to be kick back by Sasuke. He landed in front of Zabuza.

"It looks like your matched Haku."

The masked boy stood. "It would seem so..."

"You know what to do."


	7. Chapter 7

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 6 – The Mist's Secret

Haku nodded and formed hand signs.

Sasuke watched them carefully. _"What kind of jutsu is this?!"_ He thought.

Kakashi watched. _"I can't just stand here knowing something terrible could happen to him! But if I leave...Zabuza could get to Tazuna..."_ Kakashi thought as he studied both Haku's and Sasuke's movements.

The air suddenly felt cold; sending a chill up Sasuke's spine and making him shiver a little.

Sakura's eyes widened and shivered a little. "K-Kakashi...that kid...who is he?"

Kakashi shivered a little too. "I-I dunno, but he's got some nerve if he wants to freeze everyone in this area, especially Sasuke."

"I hope Sasuke's gonna be alright over there."

Sasuke looked around as the mist around him and Haku got thicker. _"What's he planning?!"_

Haku muttered something under his breath and a house of ice mirrors; making it impossible for Sasuke to escape.

The raven-haired teen started to panic. _"What the?! What's going on?"_ He thought as he looked around franticly for an exit.

"You can't escape this time. I won't allow you to stand in Zabuza's way. You'll die here." Haku said emotionlessly.

Zabuza laughed; catching the attention of Naruto. "That brat is done for. Once Haku starts, it'll only end with your little gennin's death."

"_I've gotta do something..."_ He thought as he looked over at the house of mirrors.

"And don't even think about going in to save him. You'll deal with me or I go for the bridge builder." He said with a smirk.

"_I have to do something..."_ Kakashi thought. He looked at Sakura. "Is it ok if I leave you to guard Mr. Tazuna by yourself?"

Sakura looked a little unsure, but then realized that Kakashi had a plan and nodded. "Go ahead. I've got this."

Kakashi nodded and looked for a way to help Sasuke. _"This is gonna be difficult. If I just run to those mirrors I'll take the risk of getting into Naruto-sensei's fight, but if I use a jutsu I could end up in the wrong place...I'd rather take that risk over any other!" _Kakashi thought before disappearing.

Sakura sighed. _"I hope you know what you're doing Kakashi."_ She thought. She looked up at Tazuna.

"I'm sure those boys know what they're doing. Just do what you were told to do and trust your team mates."

Sakura nodded and stood her guard in front of the bridge builder.

Haku threw senbon in Sasuke's direction; only to be hit away by kunai knives. "Huh?"

Kakashi skidded next to Sasuke. "Hey."

"Couldn't you just be out there to attack from the outside?!"

"If I wanted to get involved with Naruto-sensei's fight; which I didn't. This was my only good option."

Sasuke sighed. "Fine. Let's do this...together!"

Kakashi nodded and readied for an attack.

Haku threw more senbon at them. "You won't be able to defeat me even if ou outnumber me."

Sasuke and Kakashi blocked all the senbon and stayed silent.

Sasuke formed hand signs. _"If that's ice then I'll just melt it!"_ He thought before a raging fire ball erupted from his mouth. His eyes widened when he saw that even his fire didn't melt the ice.

"That fire isn't going to work against my jutsu. I told you, I won't let you get in Zabuza's way. You both will die here!" He said before taking aim at Kakashi.

Sasuke looked to where Haku was aiming. "Kakashi look out!"

Haku threw the senbon from all mirrors.

Kakashi used a kunai to block them all. He looked back at Sasuke. "Thanks..."

Sasuke nodded and looked around. He saw Haku jumping from mirror to mirror and was finally able to trance his movement with his sharingan. _"That's it!"_ He thought as he moved up next to Kakashi. "Kick up as much water as possible. I have an idea." He whispered.

Kakashi nodded and started kicking up water.

Sasuke got weapons ready to aim at Haku and saw the water Kakashi was kicking up moving. He watched carefully and saw where he was going next and threw the weapons at him. One of the kunai knives that he threw skimmed his shoulder.

Haku landed on the ground. _"He was able to see my movement and take aim at me...who is this kid?"_ Haku thought.

Kakashi smirked at Sasuke. "Nice hit..."

The Uchiha smirked back and nodded.

After a couple hours of blocking senbon, both Sasuke and Kakashi had begun to get tired; nothing they tried was working.

Sasuke stumbled backward and caught himself on one knee. He was starting to get exhausted. Kakashi was already too tired and had collapsed next to his team mate.

"K-Kakashi...you need to get up...c'mon..." Sasuke said standing back up. He winced and was a little shaky.

"Looks your friend can no longer move. Both of you look exhausted, maybe I'll be nice and put you out of your misery." The masked boy said as he readied senbon.

Sasuke's eyes widened. _"Kakashi!"_ Sasuke thought a he looked over at the collapsed white-haired teen.

The mirrored boy threw the weapons directly at Kakashi.

Sasuke bolted to his friend's aid; stopping in front of him. He took every single senbon.

Kakashi came to and looked up to see Sasuke standing in front of him. His eyes widened when Sasuke looked back at him; blood trailed from his mouth. "S-Sasuke!"

Sasuke chuckled faintly. "You're welcome..."

"W-why'd you do it?"

"Why wouldn't I? I didn't lie to you! I saved you because of what I said...besides...I didn't have time to think...my body just moved on its own."

The gennin's eyes widened. "W-what? So...you were willing to risk your own life...for mine?"

Sasuke smiled a little and nodded, but the smile then disappeared before the young Uchiha fell.

Kakashi caught him. "Sasuke!"

"Kakashi...d-don't give up on your dreams ok?"

"What're you talking about?! You can't leave me here!"

"Hehehe you're a good guy Kakashi. The one thing I can't stand to leave is you."

Kakashi started to tear up. "Sasuke...please don't go..."

Sasuke's eyes slowly shut and he fell limp in Kakashi's arms.

~ Flashback (Memories with Sasuke) ~

"Ok...you one the right. You're first."

"My name is Kakashi Hatake. I don't really like or dislike anything. I don't really think about my dreams for the future, and I train in my spare time."

"So would that be your hobby?"

"Sure..."

"Alright then. You on the left."

"My name is Sakura Haruno. The things I like are...well...the PERSON I like is...my dreams for the future..." She said; each time she was going to say something she's giggle.

"And your dislikes?"

"People who annoy me."

. "Alright then..." He said before sighing. "You in the middle."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. It doesn't matter what I dislike because I don't particularly LIKE a lot of things." The raven-haired boy started.

Sakura sulked a little; making Kakashi smirk under his mask.

"_I bet I can prove you wrong Uchiha!"_ Kakashi thought.

"I don't have many hobbies, and what you call a dream, I call an ambition: I'm going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone..."

"_Well that's a little dark..."_ Kakashi thought.

Kakashi found Sasuke. "Hey...what's the plan here?" He whispered.

"First we find Sakura, and then I'll explain everything then."

Kakashi nodded before he and Sasuke flew through the trees until Sasuke spotted Sakura in the bushes.

Sasuke swung down into the bushes with extreme light-footedness; not even making a single sound. He tapped her.

She was about to scream when she turned, but she stopped herself when she saw Sasuke. "S-Sasuke..." She whispered.

"Shhh. I've got a plan."

Kakashi landed next to him.

"Ok then what is it?"

"Alright...first, I'll send clones to put up traps, then after a while he'll probably get impatient, I'll then give Sakura the signal to set off the first trap. He'll probably dodge it, so Sakura will have to move to a new position as quickly and quietly as possible."

Sakura nodded. "Ok...then what?"

"Once he dodges it, he'll go close to the trees, where Kakashi will have set up foot traps to give us more time to put the second part of the plan into place."

"Right, then what." Kakashi said.

"Next, after he cuts himself down for the second time, Kakashi will give me the signal to move into the water for shadow clone attack, and both of you will then jump out into plain sight, but you won't do anything. You'll just stand there, and when he asks if you're just gonna stand there, the signal for me then to ambush him from the water is you two just saying 'yup' and nothing else. After surprising him we all attack him at once to get the bells. You two got that?"

Kakashi and Sakura nodded. "We got it."

"Alright good. Now let's get started. My clones set the first trap. Get into positions."

They nodded and got into their positions.

"Ha! We got you sensei!" Sakura cheered.

Sasuke and Kakashi smirked.

"So you did...together..."

"Huh?"

Sasuke looked at Sakura. "That's why I had you two help me with the plan. It was a team effort."

"Oh! So THAT'S why there were only two bells! To test us!"

Naruto smiled. "Exactly."

The gennin got off their teacher's back.

"You three pass."

Sakura cheered as Kakashi and Sasuke high-fived.

"Alright!" Kakashi and Sasuke cheered.

Naruto smiled. "Team 7 starts their first mission tomorrow."

"Sweet!" Sakura said.

"Hey there sleepy head." Kakashi said with a smirk.

Sasuke groaned and turned over. "What do you want?" He said; his voice muffled by his pillow.

Sakura giggled. "We have our first mission today silly."

Sasuke sighed into his pillow and sat up. "I almost forgot..."

Sasuke and Kakashi first freed their teacher and continued to fight.

Kakashi had the two assailants distracted while Sasuke put them in their place...literally.

Sasuke tossed a shuriken first to pin their chains to a tree, and then threw a kunai to lock them there.

Kakashi's eyes widened. _"Whoa. He doesn't act like he's injured at all!"_ He thought.

Sasuke landed in a handstand form and pushed himself up to his feet.

Naruto did the rest of the work by chaining the assailants up with their own chains.

Kakashi saw a cut on Sasuke's arm. "H-hey! Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked over at Kakashi. "What?"

"Your arm!"

Naruto looked over. "Hm?"

"It's just a cut. Chill would ya Kakashi?" Sasuke said calmly.

"Sasuke you realize that these chains had poison in them right? If it spreads to your veins you could die." Naruto said as he walked over to him.

Sasuke looked at the cut and sighed. "Fine then..." He said before sucking out the poison himself.

"Oh and I want everyone up in the morning. I have something for you three to do for some early-morning training. Alright?"

"Yes sir." They said before walking to their rooms and put their stuff down.

Kakashi shut the door before Sasuke could walk out.

"Dude!"

"What?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"What're you talking about?"

Kakashi pinned Sasuke against the door. "You're hiding something, and I wanna know what it is."

"W-well you're hiding something too!"

"Like what?"

"You always wear a mask. Why don't you show your face for once?!"

Kakashi's eyes widened and he blushed. "You tell me what I wanna know and I'll show you my face. Deal?"

Sasuke gulped. "D-deal."

"Alright...uh...what about..." Kakashi said in attempt to think out loud. "What about me?" He said with a small but sly smirk.

Sasuke's eyes widened. "W-what? Y-you, but I thought that you liked someone else...by the way you used to act around me before this mission."

"Nope. In all honesty I was just using that as a cover-up for my true feelings...for you..." Kakashi said as a blush found its way across his face; losing his smirk.

"R-really?"

Kakashi nodded.

"I kinda did the same thing with you..." Sasuke said; almost sounding like he was mumbling. He was now looking away; his face had a new blush spreading across his cheeks.

He leaned over Sasuke who was sound asleep. "Sasuke...Sasuke...wake up."

Sasuke turned over to face him.

"_Better..."_ He thought. "Sasuke if you don't get up you're going to force me to take drastic measures to wake you." He threatened.

Sasuke's eyes tightened.

Kakashi leaned in to kiss his neck; only to be stopped by a hand – Sasuke's hand.

"Leave my neck alone...you've already kissed it enough for now..." He said; still sound a little but tired.

Kakashi chuckled. "Have I?"

Sasuke nodded.

Kakashi smiled and kisses Sasuke's forehead. "Get up sleepy head."

Kakashi looked over at him; seeing something he thought he'd never see – Sasuke's genuine smile. _"He's...he's smiling, and it's not a fake one either! It's a real smile!"_ Kakashi thought before a voice snapped him from his thoughts.

"Kakashi!"

"Hm?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah...I was just thinking..."

"Okay, but we should get down...Naruto-sensei and Sakura are probably waiting for us..."

"Okay. Let's go. I'll race ya." He said with a smirk.

"Oh you're SO on!" Sasuke said as they raced down.

Kakashi and Sasuke crossed between trees like cross stitching.

Sakura watched in amazement with Naruto.

Sasuke darted from tree-to-tree leaving Kakashi in the dust. He landed perfectly on the ground minutes before Kakashi.

"_Wow...fast much?"_ Kakashi said as he landed behind him.

"Great work boys. I'm very impressed with your ability to learn quickly." Naruto said with a smile.

"Thanks sensei." Kakashi and Sasuke said at the same time.

"I think we've covered what I needed to teach you. We can continue with our actual mission tomorrow."

Sakura looked up; seeing that it was starting to get dark and the sun was setting. "Can we stay for a couple more minutes please Naruto-sensei?"

Naruto sighed. "I guess so."

"Sweet thanks." She said as she and the boys ran up into the trees.

Sasuke and Kakashi reached the treetops once again to watch the sunset; lucky that there was a branch big enough for both of them to sit on.

Sasuke yawned and leaned on Kakashi's shoulder.

Kakashi looked at him and smiled. "Getting tired are we now?"

"Just a little..."

Kakashi kissed Sasuke's head and put an arm around him.

The raven-haired teen blushed and moved a little closer to the masked boy.

Kakashi moved to lean against the trunk of the tree and pulled Sasuke into his arms.

Sasuke's face got redder as Kakashi's arms tightened around his waist.

Kakashi leaned into Sasuke and got close to his ear. "Love you...Sasuke." He whispered

"I-I...I love you too..."

~ End of Flashback (Memories with Sasuke) ~

"_That tears it! Sasuke didn't die in vain and I'm gonna prove it!"_ He thought as he gently set Sasuke down on the ground. He turned to face the mirrored boy. "Now you're gonna pay!" He said before dashing at each mirror and breaking them with a chudori blast.

"_Such power!"_

Kakashi's fists were light with electric chakra. "You're going to regret killing him! Big time!" He said before crushing the last mirror.

Naruto turned; having defeated Zabuza, he then saw Kakashi shatter the last mirror. _"Something must've happened. Where's Sasuke in all of this?"_ Naruto thought as he looked around near Kakashi.

The white-haired gennin drew his sword and held it to Haku's neck. "Any last words?"

"Just do it so ou can feel better about yourself. You don't need last regrets from me. Avenge your friend."

Instead of slitting the boy's throat he sliced the mask.

Haku thought he was going to die right on the spot, but when he saw that Kakashi had only cut his mask in half his eyes widened. "Why didn't you just do it?"

"I wanted to make a point."

Sakura looked at him; a small blush crawling across her cheeks. _"Kakashi..."_ She thought.

"What point are you trying to make then?"

"That some people can have mercy. I showed you mercy, even though you didn't show it to me...or my friend."

"That's why you should've killed me while you had the chance."

"No. You have a dream, and so do I, but my dream actually had Him in it." Kakashi said as he looked over to Sasuke.

"What about my dream?" He said looking over to Zabuza who lie defeated on the ground, but not dead. "My dream was to make sure that Zabuza accomplished his dream. I am his tool."

"You shouldn't consider yourself a tool! You may be a fighting machine, but that doesn't mean you're not human! You have someone precious to you. I had someone precious to me until you killed him, that doesn't mean I no longer have a purpose in life."

"Then...?"

"I can still live my life as a ninja. I may not be able to be with the one I love most, but that's ok; that person would want me to live as long as possible doing what I love most."

Haku looked at Zabuza who was now standing up.

"We don't need your pep talk kid!"

Naruto was about to strike him down again when Haku took the hit for him and fell to the ground with blood trailing from the corner of his mouth.

Kakashi blacked out on the ground; he had used too much chakra and energy.

Tazuna and Sakura ran to the unconscious gennin. "Kakashi!"

Sakura held him in her arms. "Kakashi we need you to wake up...please."

"Kid...I know I wasn't all too nice to you and your team mates, but she needs you...do it for her..."

Kakashi winced, but his eyes remained shut.

Sakura kept watch of Naruto and Zabuza just in case Zabuza tried anything. She looked at Kakashi with worried eyes. "Kakashi if you can hear me, I need you to tell me something..."

One of Kakashi's eyes slowly opened; followed by the other. "W-what?"

She smiled and hugged him. "You're ok."

"Yeah...of course I am, but what was the question again?"

She smiled more. "Where's Sasuke?"

Kakashi looked away from her; he couldn't look into her eyes and tell her knowing how much it would hurt her, and instead of telling her he sat up.

Tazuna held a hand out to him. "Here...it's the least I can do..."

Kakashi smile faintly; still trying not to look like he's upset. "Thanks Mr. Tazuna...this means a lot."

"It's no trouble."

Sakura looked at him her eyes full of worry. "K-Kakashi...where's Sasuke?"

"F-follow me..." He said; trying not to choke up.

She and Tazuna looked confused, but they followed Kakashi further down the bridge.

Kakashi fell to his knees in front of Sasuke.

Sakura's emerald eyes widened. "S-Sasuke...no..." She murmured before falling next to her team mate.

Tazuna looked away. _"Of all the kids on the team...he was the one to go...that's cruel..."_ He thought as he watched as Kakashi hugged Sasuke close to his chest.

Naruto had finally finished off Zabuza and looked back to see Tazuna standing in front of Sakura and Kakashi and grew curious. He walked over to Tazuna and tapped his shoulder.

Tazuna turned around; a tear rolling down the side of his face.

"What's going on?"

He sniffled. "See for yourself." He said before stepping aside.

Naruto saw Kakashi on his knees next to Sakura. He crouched on the other side of him to see that the white-haired teen was holding Sasuke's limp figure in his arms. "Kakashi what happed?"

"S-Sasuke...saved me...in exchange for his own life...that's what happened..."

Sakura stood next to Tazuna to give Kakashi some room.

Tazuna put his arm around her shoulders.

Sakura burst into tears and was pulled into Tazuna's arms.

"_W-what's going on...agh...everything on me hurts..."_

"Sasuke..."

"_Kakashi? I-is he...crying? He is!"_ "K-Kakashi...that hurts..." Sasuke said; his voice was very gravely and even made him sound like he was in.

Kakashi's eyes widened. "S-Sasuke?!" He looked down at him. "It is you..."

A faint smile made its way across Sasuke's lips. "Yeah...it is..."

Kakashi helped him stand and put Sasuke's arm over his neck to keep him steady.

Tazuna wiped his watery eyes and sighed. "Thank goodness."

Sakura turned to see he was ok and hugged him gently so she wouldn't hurt him. "I'm so glad you're alright."

Kakashi let go of his other arm and smiled.

Sasuke wrapped his arms around the sobbing pink-haired girl. "It's okay Sakura...I'm not dead just yet...not for a while." He said trying to calm her down.

Sakura's sobbing quieted down as she began to smile. _"He's...hugging me...this is a first, but I like it."_ She thought as she buried her face into his chest.

The young Uchiha smiled and started rubbing her back.

Sakura let go and looked into his onyx orbs. "It's good to have you back Sasuke."

The gennin smiled gently and patted her head. "It's good to be back."

Kakashi saw that he was still a little wobbly and put his team mate's arm over his neck again.

Naruto had been standing next to Tazuna. "Alright...I think we should get back so that we get some well-deserved rest." He said before looking at the bridge builder.

Tazuna nodded. "I agree. You're students are amazing by the way." He said with a wide grin.

Sakura blushed a little, Kakashi chuckled, and Sasuke smirked.

"By the way, I want to give you guys something when we get back." Tazuna said.

"Okay." Sakura and Kakashi said.

Sasuke was half-asleep (I would be too if I almost died! I'd be pretty exhausted); making Kakashi smile a little.

The white-haired teen saw how tired his team mate was and decided it was best if Sasuke didn't walk right now. He picked Sasuke up and carried him bridal style without any trouble at all.

"_Wow...even after a fierce battle...he can still do so much..."_ Naruto thought before he noticed the determination in the young ninja's eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 7 – Getting Better – The Surprise from the Bridge Builder

Tazuna opened the door to the bed room that Kakashi and Sasuke shared.

"Thanks..." Kakashi said before walking in. "I'm gonna need some privacy here..."

"R-right...sorry." Tazuna said before shutting the door.

Kakashi sighed. He put the Uchiha down gently on the bed and looked at him with worry filling his eyes. "I need to get those needle out of you, but to do that..." He said before pausing.

Sasuke knew what he was going to say and nodded. "I know..."

Kakashi smiled a little and helped Sasuke get his shirt off. "We'll start here..."

Sasuke winced a little. "Okay..."

Kakashi grabbed the bandages he kept in his bag and put it down next to Sasuke. "I'll be back."

Sasuke nodded and watched Kakashi open the door and walk out.

Kakashi came back a minute later with rubbing alcohol. "This should clean those up, but it'll sting for a bit okay?"

Sasuke nodded.

Kakashi knelt beside the bed and quickly pulled each needle out and set them on a cloth.

Sasuke hissed in pain.

"I know it hurts, but it won't soon enough." He said as he put rubbing alcohol on another cloth and gently caressed the surface of the puncture marks and cuts.

Sasuke winced and hissed in pain with each touch. _"I guess the pain means its working..."_ He thought as he watched Kakashi take exclusive care of his injuries.

Kakashi pulled the other needles out and treated them very carefully like he did the others and had finally finished.

Sasuke had fallen asleep, but he winced in pain every-so-often.

"_I guess I'd be tired too if I was in that kind of pain..."_ Kakashi thought as he wrapped bandages around the Uchiha's injuries. He smiled. _"At least he's not dead...and he's just asleep..."_ He thought before pulling his mask down. He leaned over Sasuke and kissed his forehead before pulling his mask back up. He sat next to the bed and waited for Sasuke to wake up, and ended up falling asleep himself; his head on the bed and the rest of him on the floor.

Sasuke's eyes slowly fluttered open as he started to wake up. He sat up and saw Kakashi asleep with his head on the side of the bed and smiled. He quietly got up and put his cloths back on; which we neatly folded on his backpack and clean. _"I wonder how long I was asleep..."_ He thought as he pulled his shirt over his head; wincing a couple times.

Kakashi woke up and saw that the raven-haired teen was no longer in bed and looked over to his backpack to see he was putting his clothes on. He stood up and walked over to him. "Do you need some help?" He asked.

Sasuke looked at him and nodded; it was very painful to do this by himself.

Kakashi smiled and helped him put his clothes back on.

"T-thanks Kakashi."

"No problem." He said with a gently smile.

There was a knock on their bedroom door.

Kakashi was tying Sasuke's headband around his forehead. "What is it?"

Sakura opened the door. "Hey guys..."

"Oh hey Sakura." The boys said.

"How're you feeling Sasuke?"

"Well...aside from the throbbing pain...I'm fine." Sasuke said as Kakashi tied the trio of scrolls around his waist.

Sakura sheepishly smiled and walked over to him and kissed his cheek. "I think what you did for Kakashi was very noble of you..." She said blushing. "You're a good guy Sasuke." She finished.

Sasuke faintly smiled. _"I said the same thing to Kakashi..."_ He thought. "You gotta give Kakashi credit too...he killed a guy because of me..."

The pink-haired girl giggled and walked over to Kakashi and kissed his nose (cause his cheeks are hidden under his mask). "Avenging someone's death was very noble of you Kakashi."

Kakashi smiled a little as Sakura hugged both of them.

"I'm just glad you're both ok."

"Well...mostly..." Kakashi said looking over at Sasuke."

"Anyways..." Sakura started as she pulled away. "Mr. Tazuna would like to see all three of us. He said he has something for us."

The boys nodded and followed Sakura out to the dining area and sat down.

Naruto looked over at them and smiled as Mr. Tazuna walked out with small boxes.

The three gennin looked a little confused but waited for Tazuna to say something.

The bridge builder set the three boxes down on the table; one – a pink-ish box in front of Sakura, the second – a green-colored box in front of Kakashi, and the third – a navy box in front of Sasuke.

The woman who lived with Mr. Tazuna brought an orange-ish colored box over to Naruto and put her finger to her lips as if to say 'don't say anything, just take it' as she smiled and walked away soon after.

"Well don't wait for me to say you can open 'em. Go ahead." He said with a wide grin.

"O-ok..." They said before opening the boxes in front of them.

Sakura went first. He pulled the lid off and pulled out a silver circle hairpin (like her clan symbol! How thoughtful). She smiled at the man. "Thanks Mr. Tazuna."

The bridge builder smiled back. "No problem kiddo."

Kakashi was next. He pulled the lid off and pulled out new sword. His eyes widened. "H-how did you get this?!"

"I know people." He said with a smirk.

"Thank you so much." He said; not taking his eyes off the sword. He took his old one out and replaced it with the new one. "It fits perfectly!"

"Don't mention it Kakashi."

Sasuke was then last. He pulled the lid off and pulled out a pair of blue-tinted goggles with an Uchiha symbol engraved on the sides. He was shocked. "How...how did you do all this?"

The man chuckled. "Like I said. I know people." He said looking over at Naruto slightly.

Sasuke put the goggles on and flipped the lenses up so they weren't on his eyes...for now. "T-thanks Mr. Tazuna..."

"Hey, anyone who's willing to give up their lives to save someone else is ok in my book." He said giving the Uchiha a thumbs up with the same wide grin he gave them earlier. He looked over at Naruto. "Your turn Uzumaki."

The jounin smiled and pulled the lid off and reached into the box. He smiled and took out a book. "A book?" He asked curiously.

"Look inside the book." Tazuna said with a smirk.

Naruto opened the book to see that the pages we coupons for ramen. He smiled at Tazuna. "Thanks Tazuna."

"You're welcome."

"By the way...Mr. Tazuna?" Sakura started.

"Yes Sakura?"

"When will you bridge be finished?" She asked.

"_Just when I thought she was done with questions..."_ Kakashi thought.

"In a couple days at the latest. I'll be back working on the bridge tomorrow if ou four wanna come along to help."

"That sounds like fun." She said with a smile.

"What do ya say boys?" Tazuna asked.

"I don't see why not." Kakashi said. He looked at Sasuke.

"It's the least we can do for ya." The Uchiha said with a smirk.

"Alright then. It's settled. You guys better head off to bed if you wanna get up well rested."

The three gennin nodded and went to their rooms. "Good night guys!" They said before shutting their doors.

"What about Tazuna?" Naruto asked.

"I'm going to bed too. See ya in the morning Naruto."

"Yeah. Good night." He said before going to the room he and Sakura shared.

Kakashi helped Sasuke with his shirt and ninja gear. "I forgot that we weren't going anywhere...why didn't you say something?"

Sasuke laughed a little. "Sorry...Sakura distracted me..."

Kakashi laughed a little. "Distracted you huh?"

"Just a little?"

"How'd she distract you?"

"She was talking to me..."

"Oh ok." He said as he untied the leaf headband and put it with his shirt that sat on top of his backpack.

Sasuke sat in the window and watched the tides.

"Sasuke?"

"Hm?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah...just a little tired."

"Then come to bed..."

Sasuke smirked and sighed. "Okay." He said before sliding off the edge of the windowsill and onto the floor. He walked over to the bed and lied down next to Kakashi.

Kakashi turned over and wrapped his arms around the boy's waist. "Good night Sasuke...I love you..."

Sasuke smiled and leaned back into him. "Night...love you too..."

The two fell asleep listening to the tides come in and go out, and the sound of each other's steady breathing pattern.


	9. Chapter 9

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 8 – Working on the Bridge

Kakashi woke up with the sunlight hitting his left eye; making him groan inwardly. He sat up and looked at Sasuke who was still sleep. He saw a small smile curled onto his lips and smiled himself.

"Sasuke..." The white-haired teen whispered.

Sasuke turned to face Kakashi. "Mn. W-what?"

"Wake up sleepy head." He whispered with a warm smile.

Sasuke sleepily smiled at him and sighed. "Okay..."

Kakashi chuckled. "You're not fully awake are you?"

"Nah not really..."

The boy smirked. "Then allow me to help you with that..." He said as he leaned over pulling his mask down.

Sasuke's vision started to clear. He saw that Kakashi was getting very close and blushed.

Kakashi pressed his lips into Sasuke's and pinned him to the bed; smirking inwardly as he felt Sasuke's face get hot.

The Uchiha's face was a bright red, along with his ears.

Kakashi pulled away for a moment. "You awake yet?"

Sasuke nodded; though he still looked sleepy.

Kakashi chuckled and pressed his lips into Sasuke's.

The Uchiha put his hands on Kakashi's bare chest and smirked.

Kakashi pulled away for the second time; feeling Sasuke's hands on his chest. "You're awake." He said with a smirk.

"You can say so..." He said returning the smirk.

Kakashi got off him and pulled him out of bed and into his arms.

"Is this another way to wake me up?"

"Not exactly..."

"Then...?"  
Kakashi let him go and walked over to his backpack. "Think fast." He said before throwing Sasuke his stuff.

Sasuke caught everything; each item that he caught, he quickly put on.

"Quick...I like it." He said as he grabbed Sasuke's hand and pulled him back into his arms.

Sasuke smiled, now awake. "That's enough for now lover-boy." He teased.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Oh please; you know you want me to keep going."

"That said, we need to be ready to leave to help the bridge builder."

The masked boy sighed. "Fine..." He said as he finished getting changed. He turned to see Sasuke leaning on the windowsill with the windows still open and the wind blowing just enough to move the raven shards of hair on the teen's head. He smiled and walked behind him, putting his hands just behind the Uchiha's as he kissed his cheek.

The boy blushed as he felt Kakashi lean against him.

There was a knocking at the door; making the two boys immediately open the door soon after they heard it.

Naruto was standing in the door-way. "Are you two going to eat breakfast or what?"

"Yeah." They answered as they walked out of the room.

Tazuna looked over at them to see Sasuke wearing his goggles, the lenses flipped up showing his onyx orbs and putting a blue tint to his Leaf Village headband. He smiled as the two boys sat down at the table. "Mornin' boys." He said with a bright grin.

"Morning Mr. Tazuna." They said with still-tired-ish smiles.

Sasuke looked at Sakura who was wearing her hair pin, but then saw food in front of him and started eating.

Sakura looked over at Sasuke vigilantly and blushed a little. _"He looks even hotter with those goggles on...I can't wait to see him in action and the lenses are over his amazing jet black eyes."_ She thought as she very quietly giggled to herself.

Kakashi couldn't help but hear her and looked over at her without turning his head. _"Gee...I wonder what she's thinking about...Sasuke..."_ He thought as he looked a little irritated, but he tried so hard not to show it.

Sasuke felt a small chill run up his spine, but stopped himself from shivering. _"Either someone's staring me or its cold in here, and it's not cold..."_ Sasuke thought as he continued to eat; acting as if nothing happened.

After everyone finished eating, Tazuna took them down to the bridge. "Alright. I need to know what you're strengths are so I can put you in the right line of work." He before looking at Sakura.

"I-I guess I'm good at managing."

"Over there then." He said as he pointed to an area of the bridge.

Sakura nodded and walked over to the area Tazuna directed her to. One of the workers gave her a hardhat and they got to work.

"What about you Naruto?"

"I can help with lifting things."

"Great. Right over there."

Naruto nodded and walked over to start working, and, like Sakura, received a hardhat.

"Kakashi? Sasuke?"

"We can work with actually putting the bridge together with you."

"Alright then c'mon." He said as he led them over to where he was supposed to work.

The two boys were given hardhats like the other two and got to work.

Sasuke flipped the lenses to his goggles down and jumped out onto the scaffolding and helped the workers who were out there.

Tazuna looked around to see everyone working really hard, especially Team 7; making a smile curl onto his lips. _"I guess there is hope for this generation..."_ He thought before walking out onto the scaffolding with Sasuke and began working.

Kakashi looked over at Sasuke and smiled. _"You've really changed Sasuke..."_ He thought before getting back to work.

~Flashback~

Kakashi watched as Sasuke trained in private, alone in the forest. His eyes full of curiosity. _"So this is where he disappears to."_ He thought as he watched kunai after kunai hit a target. He sat on the branch he had been perched in.

Sasuke started to form hand signs.

"_Huh? The sign of the tiger, and the sign of the horse? But...how is he able to use a fire-style jutsu?! Those take a lot of chakra!"_ He thought as he watched in awe as a blast of fire erupt from the young Uchiha's mouth, burning the target, but nothing else.

"_Wow..."_ He thought. _"What amazing power..."_

Sasuke looked at the charred target and smirked. _"Perfect shot."_ He thought before setting up another target.

Kakashi swung down and landed on a rock near Sasuke's ninja gear silently.

Sasuke finished setting the targets up and turned around and jumped back a little; screaming a little too.

The masked boy chuckled a little.

"W-when did you get here?"

"Well if I told you...you wouldn't believe me..."

"Try me."

"I was in that tree for maybe a one hour or an hour and a half, then I decided to show myself and sat on this rock for two minutes..."

"Huh..."

"What?"

"I'm surprised I wasn't able to detect you..."

"I have that effect on people."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll figure it out when you're a little older..."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the white-haired kid. "Oh?"

Kakashi nodded.

The raven-haired boy shrugged. "Whatever." He said before he began training again.

Kakashi sighed and watched.

~End of Flashback~

The sun was setting as everyone began to stop working.

Sasuke walked over to Kakashi and sat down next to him. "I know what you meant now."

"What did I mean then?"

"You're always under the radar, even when you're flirting with me."

Kakashi chuckled. "That's right. See? I told you that you'd get it when you were older."

Sasuke leaned on the masked boy's shoulder, the lenses to his goggles still over his eyes.

The masked boy smile gently and lifted the lenses so he could see the Uchiha's deep onyx orbs.

Tazuna walked over to where everyone else was sitting and sighed. "Well that's it for today. Great work everyone. If we do the same thing tomorrow then the bridge will be finished tomorrow."

Everyone cheered and took the rest of the day off to get some rest.

Naruto and the rest of Team 7 went back to Tazuna's house with Tazuna and sat out on the porch.

"Thank you for helping me. It means a lot to everyone.

"It's no trouble." Naruto said with a smile.

Tazuna returned the smile and watched the sun go down with the four ninjas.

Naruto's arm snaked around Sakura's waist and pulled her close; making the girl blush.

The pinkette leaned on her teacher's shoulder and smiled a little.

Sasuke put his head on Kakashi's shoulder and smiled as he closed his eyes.

"Hey, no sleeping you..." Kakashi said as he poked his head.

"I'm not...I'm just shutting my eyes."

"Well don't..."

"Why not?"

Kakashi put his head on Sasuke's. "They're too pretty to hide." He whispered.

Sasuke smiled and blushed.

Tazuna stood. "We should get some rest so we can finish the bridge tomorrow."

Naruto stood up with Sakura in his arms. "Right." He said looking down at her.

Sakura had fallen asleep from working; a smile curled onto her lips.

Kakashi stood up with Sasuke next to him.

Everyone walked inside and into their rooms.

Naruto put Sakura in bed and covered her up and took of his vest and his other ninja gear and went to bed.

Kakashi took off his ninja gear and put it with Sasuke's stuff. "How're those injuries by the way?"

Sasuke was taking his shirt off when he looked over. "Dunno..." He said before pulling his shirt off and folded it up.

Kakashi walked over and slowly unwrapped the bandages to find that the Uchiha's wounds were healing very quickly. "Wow...those are healing quickly..."

"Yeah, considering the fact that I had to heal from the other previous injuries..."

Kakashi sighed. "Yeah. You can see the slight scar from the injury you had on your abdomen..."

The raven-haired teen finished taking off his ninja gear and put it on his backpack.

Kakashi looked at Sasuke. "We should get some rest like Mr. Tazuna said."

"Yeah I know, I know." He said with a small smirk as he lied down in bed.

"What's the smirk for?" Kakashi asked as he raised an eyebrow, retuning the smirk.

"You'll figure it out when we get home."

"Ok." He said as he lied down next to the young Uchiha. He wrapped his arms around him as he usually did.

"Hey Kakashi?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think that Naruto-sensei has something for Sakura?"

"By the way he's been acting around her lately...yeah. Why?"

"I dunno...it just randomly came to mind..."

"Ok. Go to sleep." He said before kissing the side of Sasuke's neck.

Sasuke smiled and closed his eyes. "Ok..."

Kakashi smiled and pulled Sasuke closer to him and shut his eyes. _"He feels warmer now...for some odd reason..."_ He thought before falling asleep.


	10. Chapter 10

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 9 – Finished Bridges – Going home

Kakashi woke up seeing that Sakura was waiting for them...just standing there, and it kinda was creeping him out.

"Kakashi wake up."

The masked boy groaned and buried his face in Sasuke's neck. "Go away..."

"We're going to work on the bridge today so we can go home remember?"

Kakashi sat up and sighed. "If I get up will you leave the room?"

"Someone's grouchy today...fine."

"Thank you...I'll get up, and I'll get Sasuke up too."

"Okay." She said as she stood up and left the room. _"What's up with him?"_ She thought as she shut the door.

Sasuke's eyes fluttered open; hearing someone unusually grouchy this morning. He looked up at Kakashi with confusion in his eyes.

The masked boy looked at him; seeing he was awake and smiled.

"What's with the grouch?"

"Huh?"

"You sounded unusually grouchy...why?"

"She's just SO annoying, and creepy..."

"Creepy how?"

"I woke up with her in my face instead of you."

"Oh." He said as he sat up. In that instant, an idea popped into his head and he leaned into Kakashi, getting in his face. "How's this?"

The white-haired teen laughed a little at how cute Sasuke was acting this morning. "Better, but it would have been so much better waking up to that pretty face."

Sasuke laughed a little and got out of bed.

"What?"

"My 'pretty' face?"

"Yeah. I think your face is pretty...gorgeous actually."

The Uchiha blushed as he looked away to get dressed for their final day in the Hidden Mist Village.

Kakashi did the same; only from time-to-time he peeked over at Sasuke.

The two walked out of the room after grabbing the rest of their ninja gear and were met by the rest of their team and Tazuna.

"Mornin' boys." Tazuna said with a smile.

"Good morning..." They said; still sounding a little sleepy.

Naruto chuckled a little. "Still a little tired there guys?"

Sasuke and Kakashi nodded and sat down at the kitchen table.

Everyone ate breakfast and walked to the bridge to finish working.

Sasuke flipped the lenses of his goggles down and, one again, got to work.

Kakashi looked over at him, again, and noticed that his eyes showed a different image than they normally would – determination, but in a different way. The hatred that used to be there is gone, and replaced with love; making him smile in his mind. _"I remember the old look you had – true darkness and hatred..."_ He thought before getting back to work.

~ Flashback~

They sat as three team mates with their new jounin teacher.

"Alright. How about we start with introductions then."

"Introductions?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah. Stuff like your name, things you like and things you hate, hobbies, and dreams for the future. Stuff like that."

"Oh ok, but why don't you demonstrate; just so we can see how it's done."

Naruto sighed. "Alright. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. Things I like and things I hate, well I don't feel like telling you that. As for hobbies, I have many hobbies. My dreams for the future...I haven't really given it much thought."

"Well that wasn't much...all we know is his name." Kakashi said under his breath.

"Ok...you one the right. You're first."

"My name is Kakashi Hatake. I don't really like or dislike anything. I don't really think about my dreams for the future, and I train in my spare time."

"So would that be your hobby?"

"Sure..."

"Alright then. You on the left."

"My name is Sakura Haruno. The things I like are...well...the PERSON I like is...my dreams for the future..." She said; each time she was going to say something she's giggle.

"And your dislikes?"

"People who annoy me."

"Alright then..." He said before sighing. "You in the middle."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. It doesn't matter what I dislike because I don't particularly LIKE a lot of things." The raven-haired boy started.

Sakura sulked a little; making Kakashi smirk under his mask.

"_I bet I can prove you wrong Uchiha!"_ Kakashi thought.

"I don't have many hobbies, and what you call a dream, I call an ambition: I'm going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone..."

"_Well that's a little dark..."_ Kakashi thought.

~End of Flashback~

Everyone was taking a break for lunch.

Sakura was eating next to Naruto and Tazuna; a bright smile plastered onto her lips.

Kakashi looked over a Sasuke who surprisingly was eating with some of the other construction workers talking and making them laugh and smile; shocking the white-haired teen completely. _"What the?! He's actually making them laugh?! With what?"_ He thought.

Sasuke looked over at Kakashi and motioned for him to sit with him.

The boy smiled, gladly walked over, and sat down next to the raven-haired teen.

The Uchiha smiled and continued eating. _"Why didn't I do this before? This feels great! Everyone is having a great time just eating and talking with me. Oh wait that's right...I was obsessed with getting revenge so I thought that I didn't need friends to achieve my goal. I guess now I know I was wrong."_ He thought as he finished his food. He stood up and went to get back to work.

Kakashi looked up at him as he walked away and followed, grabbing onto his shoulder. "Hey where're you going?"

"Back to work...why?"

"You can work when our break is over. Come sit with us." He said with a warm smile.

Sasuke returned the smile and nodded. "Okay." He walked back with Kakashi and sat down and talked with the construction workers, listening to their stories and jokes, laughing along with them.

Kakashi told a couple jokes here and there; making the group laugh (the good jokes, not those corny knock-knock jokes that everyone tells).

Naruto looked over at the two boys sitting with the construction workers. "I think those two made some new friends..."

Sakura looked over and saw the guys laughing and talking. "I guess so." She said; her face shown a hint a shock. _"I never knew Sasuke would open up so much...I've never hear a really laugh, smile, or even seen his humorous side...I guess this mission wasn't all bad..."_ She thought to herself as she watched the group smile, laugh, and talk some more.

Tazuna looked over and smiled at the sight of the entire group bursting out with laughter, wide smiles on each face. _"Heh...I knew that kid could smile and laugh like any normal person..."_ He thought before finishing his food.

Naruto and Sakura also finished their food. Naruto stood. "Should we get back to work?"

Tazuna sighed and stood as well. "Yeah. We need to get this done."

Sakura nodded and stood with them.

Tazuna looked back over at the laughing group of guys. "Gentlemen! It's time to get back to work! Let's finish this bridge so that these ninjas here can get home!"

"Yes sir!" They said before getting back to work.

Sasuke and Kakashi worked in the same area, lifting boards and directing cranes positioning more parts of the bridge.

Sakura was directing some of the construction workers to their stations.

Naruto was lifting boards to the right places.

Tazuna was helping some of the workers, occasionally moving to help Sasuke and Kakashi with what they were doing.

Naruto looked over at his three gennin students.

~Flashback~

He watched them perform jutsu after jutsu in class. Sakura's jutsu were a work-in-progress, Kakashi's were near-perfect, and as for Sasuke, his jutsu were looking pretty impressive...for an academy student. _"Wow...he's pretty impressive...I'll talk to him later about how he got so good at those jutsu..."_ He thought before leaning against the wall.

Iruka smiled at his student's progress. "Alright class is dismissed for today."

The class cheered and gathered heir things and started to leave the classroom.

Sasuke was the last to leave, not wanting to catch any attention; though he didn't know he had already caught the attention of a certain jounin.

Naruto stopped him. "Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"I've got nothing else to do...sure..."

Naruto nodded and moved him out of the hallway so he wouldn't be in the way of the other kids who were leaving. "Where did you learn to control your chakra so well and learn those jutsu?"

"My brother...before the incident..."

"I heard about that, and I'm sorry..."

"Hey it wasn't your fault...I don't need your pity anyway...I gotta go..." He said as he walked away, putting his hands in his pockets and swiftly maneuvering through the crowd of kids talking to one-another.

"_He seems to have been hit pretty hard by all this...he's taking it hard too..."_ He thought as he watched the raven-haired boy leave the building.

He spotted another boy running after him, he had white hair that looked as if it defied gravity.

"Sasuke wait up!"

Sasuke kept walking; not wanting to be bothered.

The other boy kept running after him until he caught up; out of breath, but still enough to talk. "W-what's up with you? You seem more...depressed then usual..." He said still trying to catch his breath.

Sasuke was silent.

"Sasuke? C'mon talk to me."

Sasuke just sighed and kept walking.

"Sasuke?"

"Hm?"

"You ok?"

"Yup..."

"Are you sure?"

Sasuke nodded and kept walking.

Kakashi sighed and walked beside him until they got to an intersection where they had to separate to go home.

Naruto watched as the two boys walked their separate ways, one, the Uchiha, walking to an empty complex, the other, walking home to a retired father who waited for his son to return home from the academy. _"Total opposites...yet...so alike at the same time."_ He thought before going home himself.

~End of Flashback~

The bridge was nearly finished as Naruto realized that he'd still been working, even though he had remembered something about the two boys. He looked over and saw Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura all working together as they lifted the last piece into place. _"T-they're working together?!"_ He thought before deciding to help them.

Sasuke looked up at the jounin and a warm and confident smile curled onto his lips.

Everyone lowered the last piece into place and used a drill to keep it there and lied down the cement for the bridge.

After a couple hours of making sure the cement dried, the bridge was finally finished. Everyone cheered as Tazuna deemed the bridge finished.

Naruto had told the three gennin to get their things so that they'd be ready to leave.

On one hand, they were happy that they were going home, but on the other hand however, they didn't want to leave after all the great times they had.

The bridge builder looked at the team walked over to them. "You guys are always welcome back here anytime."

The three gennin smiled. "Thanks Mr. Tazuna."

Naruto smiled as well. "Yeah...thanks Tazuna."

"Just paying you guys back for all you've done for me and this village." Tazuna said with a smile.

They said their good-byes and left.

"Mr. Tazuna?"

"Yes?"

"You never gave the bridge a formal name..."

"Oh Yeah...uh...let's see..." He said thinking out loud. "The Great Seventh Bridge..."

"Why that name?"

"Team 7 has done so much for this village...it's another way of saying thank you to them."

The construction workers smiled and nodded in agreement. One of the workers just stood and watched Team 7 leave. _"Thank you...Sasuke Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake...for helping me realize how great it feels to be happy with friends..."_ He thought as he smiled; a tear escaping from his eye, but it was just one.

Sakura walked next to Naruto and Sasuke with a smile on her face. 'That was fun...that place wasn't as bad as I thought it would be after all."

Sasuke smirked and looked at the masked boy walking beside him. "I had fun too..."

The white-haired teen snickered and smirked. "For once..."

"Hey! Just because I don't say it, doesn't mean that I didn't think it was fun!"

Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi laughed.

"Something wrong Sasuke?" Kakashi teased.

Sasuke growled a little, but instead smirked. "Nope. You gotta try harder than that."

"WHAT?! I thought I was making you mad for a sec there!"

This time it was Sasuke's turn to laugh. "Too bad for you then." The Uchiha said teasing back.

The trip home wasn't so long seen as how they were talking and making each other laugh. They soon reached the Leaf Village Gate.

Naruto sighed and smiled. "Home at last..."

Sasuke stretched. "Yeah...I kinda missed being where I actually belong..." He said; his voice made it sound like he was a little tired.

Sakura and Kakashi smiled. "Tired much Sasuke?" They asked in a joking tone.

"A little..." The raven-haired teen replied; humoring their joking around.

They walked through the gate and went to the training field.

Naruto put his stuff down by one of the logs and looked at the three gennin.

"What're we here for sensei?" Sakura asked.

"_Of COURSE she's the one to ask ALL the questions..."_ Kakashi thought; looking a little irritated.

"We're going to do a small training session."

"What for?" Sasuke asked.

"There's are different jutsu that I want each of you to learn. Each of you will take on a different jutsu from the others on the team."

Sasuke looked a little interested and wanted to hear more. "Go on..." He said crossing his arms.

He tossed each gennin a scroll. "Learn the jutsu that is inside this scroll. We'll practice for the first try, but the rest is all on you guys. You can open your scrolls." He said; a smug smirk on his face.

The three gennin opened their scrolls.

Sakura's emerald eyes widened when she saw the technique she had to practice. _"Whoa! This is a very advanced jutsu!"_

Kakashi opened his and saw the very same jutsu he already knew. _"Huh? But I already know this jutsu..."_

Sasuke opened his last. _"A technique to unlock the secrets of my sharingan! Sweet!"_

"Uh Naruto-sensei?"

"Yes Kakashi?"

"I already know this technique...and I've come very close to perfecting it..."

Naruto looked at Kakashi's scroll. "Oops. Wrong one. That was for something else." He said as he took it and rolled it back up, switching it with a different scroll. "Try that one..." He said.

Kakashi opened it. _"This one looks tricky, but what the hell I'll give it a shot!"_

"Well?"

"I'll give this one all I've got!"

"Great! Now, as for training, I will go through the first step of performing these jutsu with each one of you personally. I'll show you how to start it, how to perform it, and how to control it...for the most part, but like I said before the rest is on you guys to perfect them. Got it?"

The three gennin nodded. "Yes sir!" They said together.

"Good. Now I'll Sakura go first."

Sakura nodded and walked up to her teacher while the two boys backed up so they weren't in the way. The pinkette followed her teacher's instructions and performed the jutsu with ease; making the ground look like it was hit by an earthquake.

"_Whoa!"_ Sasuke and Kakashi thought.

"There. Now you know how to perform it and control it. You do the rest on your own time though. It's a chakra-consuming technique right now, but if you can get even more of your chakra under control, then I'm certain that this jutsu won't be so tiresome. Okay?"

Sakura nodded; looking a little spent, Naruto was right, it was a chakra-consuming technique.

"Kakashi your turn."

Kakashi nodded and walked forward.

Sakura sat down in front of where Sasuke sat.

Naruto did the same thing for Kakashi as he had done for Sakura.

The masked boy found the jutsu easy to perform as he made a row of giant metal spikes erupt from the ground where Sakura had pounded into.

"Good job. You know what you have to do now right?"

The boy nodded and sat back down next to Sasuke.

"Sasuke...you're up."

Sasuke swiftly jumped over Sakura and landed in front of Naruto, waiting for instruction. "I'm ready when you are." He said calmly.

Naruto nodded and taught him how to perform the chain of jutsu.

"_A jutsu chain?! But how does he have enough chakra to sustain that much?!"_ Kakashi thought as he watched in amazement.

**Sorry for stopping here, but I have my reasons. Just you wait! The next chapter will be in shortly! It'll be good I promise!**


	11. Chapter 11

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 10 – Sasuke's Jutsu Chain – Homecoming Ambush

Sasuke quickly followed his teacher's movements and hand signs; each more difficult than the last.

"_He's quicker than usual..."_ Naruto thought as he performed the last link of the jutsu chain.

Instinctively, Sasuke followed his teacher, each hand sign perfectly replicated.

Kakashi and Sakura watched as their team mate quickly followed their teacher's movements and hand signs perfectly.

"_Wow...he's so fast!"_ Sakura thought as she watched the raven-haired teen cop everything Naruto did.

Sasuke finished the last hand sign, following Naruto. A surging pain spread through his eyes and he fell to his knees. The Uchiha groaned and felt as if his eyes were going to come out of his head. He tried to scream in pain, but something stopped him, and not even he knew what it was. _"It was probably one of the previous links of the jutsu chain..."_ He thought as the pain subsided. He stood, his eyes closed. _"Was it really this easy?"_ He thought as his eyes slowly opened in case they had dilated. He winced a little at the sudden light that hit his eyes.

"Your jutsu was very different as you can tell Sasuke. This jutsu, this chain I should say, was a chain of hand signs to unlock what most Uchiha can only unlock through losing something very precious to them, but I found this scroll and knew I had to teach the hand signs to you. It's a technique that is only preformed once, no perfection needed. Take a look..." He said as he stood aside for Sasuke to look into the river behind him.

The raven-haired teen walked by his teacher and over to the water. He looked down and was immediately shocked by what he saw – a mongekyou sharingan had swirled its way into his onyx eyes. It had caused a surging pain due to the sudden change, a change that was supposed to happen gradually instead of so sudden.

Kakashi became curious and walked over to him, looking down at the water he saw Sasuke's eyes. _"No way! The mongekyou sharingan?!"_ He thought as he looked into the red and black eyes that Sasuke had now.

Sasuke looked at his teacher. "So...that's it?"

"You're jutsu with come with your mongekyou sharingan, as soon as you learn how to use it properly without hurting yourself. There are many special types of jutsu that come with those eyes of yours." Naruto said; a serious look about his ocean eyes.

Sasuke looked back down at his reflection and nodded. _"This'll take some getting used to...that and a lot of practice learning how to control it without hurting myself...or blinding myself."_ Sasuke thought as he stared into his reflection. He felt someone staring him down and looked around for the stalking eyes; the wind blowing just enough to have his raven shards move with the breeze. His gaze stopped at a tall tree, seeing something was off about it, the way the leaves moved was enough to make the boy suspicious of it. He glared into a clearing of the leaves; making something move and attempt to escape his angry stare.

Naruto looked from Sasuke to the tree and back to the tree. "What is it Sasuke?"

"There's something or someone in that tree over there..." He said before walking over to the tree and jumping up.

Both Kakashi and Sakura looked confused, but then they saw Sasuke throw someone out of the tree; making them land on their back and knocking the air out of them.

Sasuke jumped out of the tree and landed next to the person who had been watching him. He looked the man in the eyes; his sharingan staring right through him. "You...I thought I killed you a while ago!"

The man below him laughed maniacally. "You only THOUGHT you killed me...I live forever."

Sasuke's eyes widened and he growled at the man. He felt something building up inside him. The Uchiha's eyes closed and one opened; followed by two trails of blood. In an instant the man below him was engulfed in black flames. Sasuke wiped the blood away. "No one lives forever."

"_Well that was fast..."_ Naruto thought as he walked over to Sasuke and put an arm around his shoulders. "That was the first step. Nice job. Learn to control it better though, and you'll do more than just that with your will power."

Sasuke nodded as the mongekyou sharingan disappeared, revealing his onyx orbs that hid underneath.

The flames died after all that was left was a skeleton.

"_Wow...the body's already gone..."_ Kakashi thought as he walked up next to Sasuke. "Just don't let that power go to your head..." He whispered to the raven-haired teen.

Sasuke smirked. "What makes you think I'd let that happen?" He whispered back.

The masked boy returned the smirk and looked at his teacher. "So what now?"

Naruto looked around and shrugged. "If you three wanna go home feel free."

Sasuke went to walk home, but instantly froze in his tracks.

Kakashi looked at him, his eyes filling with concern. "What's wrong?"

"He wasn't alone..." He said as his sharingan swirled into his eyes. He turned around to see a full, think semi-circle of enemy ninja.

Kakashi followed the Uchiha's gaze; only to fine the same sight. "H-holy...shit..."

Sakura turned and screamed a little.

Sasuke got in front of both of them; while Naruto got Sakura out of the way.

"S-sensei?!"

"Let them deal with this. You don't have enough chakra to fight right now."

Sakura sighed and nodded. "Okay..."

Naruto gently smiled at her and looked back at the boys. _"Don't get yourselves killed guys."_ He thought before taking Sakura to her house.

Sasuke stood his ground next to Kakashi, waiting for the enemy to make their move. He felt that same energy build up inside him again, and again, closed his eyes; opening one letting two trails of blood run down the side of his face. The same black flames flew toward most of the enemy ninja, hitting that very same amount of them.

Kakashi froze as soon as he saw the blood run down the side of the Uchiha's face.

Sasuke wiped the blood away like last time and he looked at Kakashi; seeing the slight fear in his eyes. He, instead, ran at his attackers; kunai knives drawn and ready for the fight.

Kakashi snapped out of his shock and helped Sasuke fight off the attackers. He skidded back as Sasuke continued to fight them off. He formed hand signs; making electricity pulse around his fist. He ran at the attackers to help Sasuke and defeated all but one who was very agile and swift.

Both boys skidded backwards and stood next to each other.

The raven-haired teen looked at his team mate.

The masked boy nodded and the two started to form hand signs with him; their symbols almost identical.

Both teens' fists burned with electricity and fire. They each disappeared; confusing the last enemy ninja standing and appeared behind him; sending a critical blow to the side of his head.

~Flashback~

The masked boy sat on a roof; there was nothing but silence. He watched as the clouds in the sky passed over and kept going. The boy sighed and stood; looing over all the other buildings. He heard the roar of the street bellow; merchants bellowing, kids running laughing, carts being pushed along. He decided to move and jumped from rooftop-to-rooftop. He stopped at the edge of one and looked down. _"No one...I guess I can get down here..."_ He thought before jumping down. He walked out onto the street and looked around. _"I hope nobody saw me..."_ He thought before walking down the side of the street. He stopped when he heard a sigh from above him. He looked up and saw Sasuke. "Hey."

Sasuke looked down. "Oh hey. What's up?"

"You mean aside from you?"

Sasuke laughed a little. "Yeah smartass, aside from me."

He jumped up and sat down next to him. "Nothing. I was just..."

"Roof running?"

"Yeah..." He said with a sigh as he looked out over the streets.

"Something on your mind Kakashi?"

"You could say that..."

Sasuke looked a bit confused. "Tell me..."

"They're just random thoughts...it's nothing..."

"You sure?"

The white-haired teen nodded.

"Okay, but if you wanna talk..."

Kakashi looked at Sasuke. _"This isn't what I think he's going to say is it?"_

"Just come to me...okay?"

Kakashi smiled a little and nodded. "Okay...thanks..."

The Uchiha smiled a little back. "No problem."

Both of the ninjas stood; hearing something that didn't sound friendly. They looked around, but they saw nothing.

"Something feels bad about this..."

Sasuke was still looking around for anything that seemed off. "Yeah. Tell me about it..." He said before a shiver ran through his entire body; making him crouch down.

Kakashi crouched next to him. "You okay?"

"Yeah..." He said before shivering again. "I dunno what came over me...it's like...someone's watching me..."

Kakashi stood; keeping a hand on Sasuke's back and looked around. _"Nothing...just like...that street!"_ He thought before looking back down at Sasuke.

Sasuke slowly stood; shivering less and less as he straightened out his back.

"Follow me." He said as he walked the edge of the building.

"O-okay." He said before following the masked boy.

Kakashi lead Sasuke to the empty street.

"What're we doing here?"

"I knew I felt something was off when I was walking on this street." Kakashi said as he scanned the street for anything. He spotted a lone white snake, just sitting in the middle of the road. _"Found you..."_ He thought as he took out a kunai.

Sasuke watched as Kakashi readied a kunai and followed his gaze. _"The white snake..."_ He thought as he too readied a kunai.

The snake hissed; making other snakes come out from hiding.

Sasuke's eyes widened. _"Where did THOSE come from?!"_ Sasuke thought; he was shaking a little as the snakes started to form a human figure.

"_What the hell?"_ Kakashi thought.

The snakes swirled and twisted; forming a human figure – a man, long hair, thin body, odd clothing though.

Sasuke was shaking, and the shaking was very noticeable.

Kakashi looked over at his friend and saw him shaking. He put a hand on his back.

Sasuke jumped a little and looked at the masked boy.

Kakashi gave him a warm smile. "It'll be okay." He whispered.

Sasuke nodded. He looked back at the man who was now fully complete.

The man chuckled. "What's wrong? Scared...Sasuke?"

Sasuke's eyes widened again. "H-how do you know my name? Who are you?"

The man smirked. "My name is Orochimaru. As to how I know your name, well I have my ways of finding out what I need to know."

Sasuke gulped.

Kakashi saw the fear in his comrade's eyes and glared at Orochimaru. "Why are you here?"

"I'm here for the Uchiha. I have no interest in you Kakashi Hatake."

"So you know my name too? Big deal. Why don't you just slither back into the hole you crawled out of? You're not going to have him."

"Are you challenging me young ninja?"

Kakashi nodded. "I am. Why? Are you afraid you'll lose?"

"Certainly not. I'm actually very confident...I'll win..." He thought before he ran at Kakashi.

Kakashi pushed Sasuke out of the way and ran at Orochimaru. He saw him start forming hand signs and copied them.

"_So the rumors are true...he DOES have the ability to quickly copy ones movements, even without a sharingan."_ The snake man thought as he and Kakashi clashed weapons.

Kakashi held a firm grip on his weapon against the older man.

Sasuke felt helpless; he just sat and watched as his friend fought off the man who was after him. _"I feel like I'm just so helpless! Weak pry that has to rely on others to defend me!"_ He thought with a sigh.

Kakashi knocked the man backwards with a swift kick. He took a quick glance at Sasuke. _"Something's wrong...he usually doesn't look like that, but when he does...something is usually wrong..."_ He thought before returning to reality; seeing that Orochimaru was up and running at him once again. He started to form hand signs to make sure he ended that battle fast. _"I hope this works..."_ He thought as electricity burst from the center of both of his hands.

Orochimaru's eyes widened. _"I must've misjudged you...Kakashi Hatake..."_ He thought before taking a hit to the chest. He was blasted backwards.

Kakashi still had one hand electrified and waited for Orochimaru's next move.

Sasuke was fed up with just standing there watching. He pulled out three kunai knives and held them between his fingers after forming a fist; disappearing soon after.

Kakashi looked back and saw that he was gone. _"Oh no. Where'd he go?! I was protecting him and now he's gone!"_ He thought before he spotted the Uchiha in a tree. _"Oh thank goodness..."_

Sasuke was perched on a branch waiting for the right time to strike. He finally saw his time to strike and took it. He disappeared from the tree and appeared behind the snake man; giving him a swift kick to the side of the head.

~End of Flashback~

The last man fell defeated before the two ninjas. Both the boys looked exhausted; trying to catch their breath as they stood in front of the last enemy ninja they'd killed. They heard their other two team mates running to them.

"Guys that was awesome!" Sakura squealed.

Great job guys. You're teamwork has really gotten better." Naruto said with a gentle smile.

Kakashi and Sasuke gave the other two a tired smile and used each other to keep themselves standing.

"Do you need some help?" Sakura asked.

The teen shook their heads. "Nah. We're fine..." Kakashi said.

"Thanks for asking though." Sasuke said.

"You two look exhausted. Why don't you two go home and get some rest. Our mission is completed anyway."

Kakashi and Sasuke nodded. "Right." They said before walking home. They stopped at the intersection. "Wait...Kakashi..."

"What's up?"

"D-did you maybe wanna...s-sleep at my place?"

"Sure. Why the stuttering?"

"I don't ask just anyone that question..."

Kakashi smiled and led Sasuke home.

"Wait, what about your dad?"

Kakashi looked down. "He...uh...he really doesn't...care...about what I do anymore...since I'm a ninja now..."

"Oh..."

"It's okay. I don't mind because then he's not bugging me about how I should be practicing more. I don't need any more practice...well alone that is."

Sasuke gave a tired chuckle and continued to walk beside the masked boy.

They got to the entrance of the Uchiha complex.

Sasuke sighed and walked ahead; now walking in front of his whit-haired team mate.

Kakashi ran slightly to catch up to him and walked beside him. "Something wrong?"

"No. This place just makes me feel nostalgic."

"In a good way I hope."

"Not exactly..."

"What do ya mean?"

"Most of my memories here were nice...more or less, but the others on the other hand...well...you can finish the picture..."

"Oh...I see." Kakashi said as he looked down a little.

**Sorry it took me so long to upload this one people. I was away on vacation...with limited internet access and that wasn't really good enough to get the chapter to upload. Ho[e you liked it anyways, another chapter is on the way :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 11 – A Short Fun Hunting – Mission Aftermath

Sasuke stopped at the front door of the main building.

"You lived in this one?"

"Yeah. It's the center of the entire of the complex."

"Wow. Is that a good thing?"

"Kinda..." He said as he unlocked the door. He opened the door and took his shoes off.

Kakashi walked in after him and did the same. He walked beside the Uchiha and looked around; becoming amazed at how nicely Sasuke lived here. "Nice place."

"Thanks. Do you want your own room?"

"Does a ninja ever put his guard down?"

"No."

"Then no."

Sasuke laughed a little. "Cute."

"Say what now?!"

The Uchiha laughed a little more. "I said it was cute. You got a problem?"

"I'm not cute!"

"I never said YOU were cute, I said that what you SAID was cute."

"Still..."

The two boys walked down the hall until Sasuke stopped at a door.

"Is that your room?"

Sasuke looked at him. "What do you think?"

"Right, it is..."

"Yeah." He said before sliding the door open. He walked in and motioned for Kakashi to follow.

Kakashi followed him and slid the door shut. "So...you live alone?" He asked; a small sly smirk curled on his lips.

Sasuke looked back at him as he pulled his shirt over his head. "Yeah. Why? What're you thinking?" he asked as he folded the shirt and quickly tossed it onto his dresser.

Kakashi leaned against the wall; his smirk still cemented on his lips. "Oh nothing..." He said as he scanned the Uchiha's figure.

Sasuke watched the masked boy's eyes and his face turned a deep shade of red. "A-are you checking me out?!"

"Yeah...why?"

Sasuke was rendered speechless.

Kakashi walked toward him and pinned him to the wall. "Is it bad?"

Sasuke gulped; unnoticed by Kakashi. "N-no..."

"Then what's the problem?" He asked in a sedative tone; a smirk curled onto his lips.

Sasuke thought for a moment to try to figure out an answer, but his mind was too clouded to think.

Kakashi could see that the Uchiha was having a hard time thinking of a response. He inched a little closer and pressed his lips against the raven-haired teen's rather cold lips.

Sasuke's face went completely red. Sure he expected it to happen, but he's always surprised by how warm Kakashi's lips are every time it happens. Suddenly the Uchiha felt a surging pain rush through his body.

Kakashi pulled away after feeling a warm at his upper lip. "What the?" He said before looking at Sasuke's mouth to see a trail of blood. His eyes widened. _"What happened?!"_ He thought before getting something to wash the blood away from the Uchiha's mouth. "Here..."

"Thanks..." He said before washing the blood away.

"What was that all about?"

"I dunno. It might have something to do with the sudden surging pain that ran through me..."

"Pain?"

"Yeah. It was this random surging pain that ran through me before the blood came out...I dunno what it was about, but I intend to find out. He said as he tossed the towel into a hamper and walking over to a window.

"What're you doing?"

Sasuke closed his eyes and just listened around him; hearing someone talking about something similar he climbed onto the windowsill.

"Sasuke?! What're you doing?" He asked as he grabbed the boy's arm.

Sasuke looked at him; determination set in his pupils. "I'm going to find out what just happened. If you wanna come you better be able to keep up." He said with a smirk.


	13. Chapter 13

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 12 – What Happened – The Duration Affect

Kakashi nodded and followed Sasuke out into the streets.

Sasuke walked up to the two women talking in the street. "Excuse me..."

They looked at him. "Yes what is it?" One asked.

"I couldn't help but overhear what you were talking about. That affect...what was it called again?"

"It's called the duration affect."

"Right. What can you tell me about it...if you don't mind telling me that is?"

"Of course we can tell you. The duration affect is like a very sudden and surging pain that all ninja get at least once in their life."

"Can you tell me more? I would love to know."

"Sure. It's an affect that normally occurs after a very intense and chakra-spending battle. Skilled ninja wouldn't get these normally because they know how to control their spending of chakra, but when this affect occurs, it sends surging pain throughout the ninja's entire body, and as a result of that, blood is released through the mouth. This can be considered a good or a bad thing."

"How is that a good thing? I can understand the bad part, but it can be considered good too?"

The woman nodded. "Yes. Some ninja think of it as the body getting rid of "old blood" to make room for new blood in the body, like a filter."

"Oh ok. I see."

"By the way...why did you ask? Was it just out of sheer curiousness or did it happen to someone you know?"

"It happened to me not too long ago. I just wanted to know what happened."

"Ah I see."

"I was just going to ask one last question if I may."

"Go ahead."

"How do you know so much about this certain topic?"

"Oh that's easy. My husband had it happen a couple nights ago. He's a very hard working ninja."

"Oh, well thank you for the info. Sorry to just butt in on your conversation like that."

"It's okay young man. By the way, what's your name?"

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha, and this is my team mate Kakashi Hatake."

"Oh alrighty then. You two best be heading home, it's not all too safe to be out on the streets this late at night."

"You should think about heading home too."

"Right. I will thanks." She said with a kind smile.

Sasuke returned the smiled, waved, and left with Kakashi.

The two boys got back to Sasuke's house quickly and rested in the very same window they left through.

Sasuke closed his eyes; only this time wasn't eavesdropping, he was just resting.

Kakashi's eyes were half-way open as he sleepily looked over at the raven-haired ninja across from him in the windowsill. _"The moon catches his skin perfectly...it catches everything perfectly, but...he was perfect to begin with..."_ He thought before picking up the sleepy Uchiha and put him in bed.

"W-wait..."

"What is it?"

"I need to change first..."

"Oh...okay." He said before Sasuke stood up and walked over to his dresser.

Sasuke took his goggles off and placed them on his dresser, along with his ninja headband and kunai holster. He quickly took out a shirt and a pair of shorts that looked like something one would wear to bed. He quickly changed out of his normal clothes and put on the bed shirt and shorts and walked back over to his bed.

Kakashi pulled him into bed and held him in his arms. "There. Now you changed your clothes, and you're comfy right?"

Sasuke smiled a little and nodded; a small blush on his cheeks.

The two closed their eyes to go to sleep listening to the chirping crickets outside.

Kakashi put his face in Sasuke's neck and smiled in his sleep; making Sasuke's cheeks burn a little brighter.

Sasuke smiled a little as he felt Kakashi's masked face on the side of his neck.

"Good night Sasuke." Kakashi whispered; his voice slightly muffled by the Uchiha's neck.

"Night." Sasuke said with a sigh; sounding just as tired as the teen holding him from behind.

The two fell asleep listening to the crickets outside and the steady breathing of each other; a small breeze grazing the un-covered skin of both of the boys.


	14. Chapter 14

**I don't own Naruto. I only wrote the fan fiction! If some of the characters seem a little OC-ish then I'm sorry - I haven't been keeping up with the episodes so don't bug me, and I might have changed a couple things - that is another thing NOT to bug me about! **(_Italic - thoughts_, and "..." is speech)

Chapter 13 – Skilled Ninja – An Incident in the Forest

The sun struck the eyes of the white-haired gennin; making him groan and sit up a little. He realized that in his sleep, both Sasuke and himself had been tossing and turning because Sasuke was now lying on his chest (not that he was complaining). _"Agh...what time is it?"_ He thought as he looked at the alarm clock and yawned. _"It's only 9:30 in the morning..."_ He thought before being snapped from his thoughts by a shifting weight on his chest. He looked down and saw Sasuke had wrapped his arms around Kakashi's torso; a soft and small smile curled onto his lips. A smile formed on his face as he pulled his mask down. _"The one morning I'm not with anyone else and I'm not bothered...this is nice...I could possibly get used to this."_ He thought.

Sasuke's eyes slowly started to open as he yawned.

"Morning Sasuke." Kakashi said with a warm smile.

"Morning..." Sasuke sleepily said; returning the warm smile.

"Did you sleep well mess-hair?"

Sasuke smiled a little more; still looking kinda tired and nodded.

"Good."

Sasuke rolled off of Kakashi and sat up on his forearms.

Kakashi looked at the onyx-eyed boy and smiled a little. "You should fix your hair if we're going to have training again today."

"Yeah...I know..."

Kakashi sat up too and got out of bed. He walked over to Sasuke's dresser and grabbed his hair brush. "Here...le'me do it.' The white-haired gennin said as he walked back over to Sasuke's bed and sat down.

"Okay." He said as he crawled over and sat in front of him.

Kakashi brushed the knots out of Sasuke's raven shards.

Sasuke smiled; a small blush rushing across his face.

"Okay. All finished." Kakashi said before getting up and putting Sasuke's hair brush back where he had found it.

Sasuke stood up and walked over to his closet.

"What you gonna wear today?"

Sasuke shrugged. "That's what I came over here to decide, but I really can't..."

"You want some help?"

Sasuke laughed a little.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing. I'm just thinking about what you'd probably choose out of everything in my closet."

Kakashi stood up and walked over the raven-haired teen; putting his hands on his hips and putting his head on the boy's shoulder. "Like?" He asked as he scanned the clothing selection.

"I dunno...I'm not you."

"True. What about that one?" He said pointing to a black shirt and white shorts.

"You think I pull something like that off?"

"We won't know until you try it."

Sasuke sighed. "I guess you're right." He said before grabbing the shirt and pair of shorts.

"I'm gonna go take a quick shower if that's ok."

"Yeah sure, go ahead."

"Cool. I'll be quick." He said before kissing Sasuke's cheek and going into the bathroom down the hall.

Sasuke tried the clothes on and looked into the mirror. _"Huh...I guess he was right, I can pull this off."_ He thought as a smirk formed on his face. He walked over to his window and sat down in the windowsill to look outside at the beautiful morning. He saw a couple jounin ninja walking the streets. _"I wonder...if what that woman said was true...she referred to OTHER ninja as skilled ninja...why not me?"_ He thought as he sighed and leaned more against the wall.

Kakashi came back in the room after twenty minutes; wearing something similar to what Sasuke was wearing (without the big collar, instead it was a collar that was attached to his mask.). "Hey there."

Sasuke looked over at him. "Oh hey. Y-you're wearing something like what I'm wearing?"

"Yeah why?" Kakashi asked.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way I just-" Sasuke started to say before Kakashi cut him off by making their lips collide.

Kakashi pulled away after a quick kiss. "You need to stop talking. I know what you meant so don't worry about it okay?" He said with a rather seductive smirk.

Sasuke's face turned red as he nodded. "O-okay..."

Kakashi smirked and snaked his arms around Sasuke's waist. "How 'bout a little fun huh Sasuke?"

The onyx-eyed teen was silent; not knowing what to say.

Kakashi laughed a little. "Something wrong?"

Sasuke shook his head.

"Then why are you not talking?" He asked lifting an eyebrow as he smirked. "Cat got your tongue?"

"N-no..."

"Oh I get it..."

"H-huh?"

Kakashi leaned into Sasuke and press his lips against the other ninja's. He led him backward against the wall and pinned him there.

Sasuke put his arms around the white-haired teen's neck.

Kakashi lifted Sasuke by his thighs and licked his lower lip.

Sasuke wrapped his legs around Kakashi's waist as he opened his mouth for the ninja to explore.

The white-haired ninja smirked inwardly and outlined the Uchiha's tongue with his own. He stopped for a second. "So are we going to do this?"

"D-do what?"

Kakashi nodded toward Sasuke's bed.

"O-oh that...I uh..."

"If you don't want to that's not a bad thing." He said with a loving smile.

"I don't mean to sound like a girl when I say this, but I don't think I'm ready for something like that yet..." he said as he looked away; his cheeks tinted red.

"It's okay. I still have something to look forward to."

"Like?"

"This." He said before he kissed him again; quickly plugging his tongue into the Uchiha's mouth.

Sasuke's eyes slowly shut as he felt Kakashi's fingers run through his jet shards; letting a moan escape from his throat. He felt a sudden rush of ecstasy run through his veins as he felt as he got pressed against the wall more.

Kakashi pulled the Uchiha's collar down and kissed the side of his neck.

Sasuke felt his face and ears burn as his fingers raked through Kakashi's white hair.

"You sure you're not ready? You're acting like you are ready..." He said before kissing the underside of the raven-haired teen's jaw.

Sasuke gulped and felt Kakashi's soft lips press into his collar bone.

Kakashi smirked and he started sucking on Sasuke's skin; making the Uchiha let out a small moan.

There was a knock at the door that stopped Kakashi from going any farther.

"Ugh...c'mon! I was getting somewhere!" He said before letting Sasuke down. Before walking to the door to see who it was he checked to make sure that the new red spot on Sasuke's collar bone was visible or not. _"Oh good..."_ He thought before going to the door and opening it.

Sasuke appeared behind him soon after.

"What is it Sakura?" He asked; his mask had been pulled up as he walked to the door.

"We have training in a couple minutes...I just wanted to come let you guys know that..."

"How did you know we were both here?" Sasuke asked.

"I checked Kakashi's house earlier, but his dad said that he never came home so I figured he was with you."

"Oh..."

"_He ratted me out!"_ Kakashi thought before sighing.

"Something wrong?"

"Just a little tired." He lied. _"It's called the "go away" signal. Ever heard of it?!"_ He thought.

"Well I'll see you two at the field." She said before waving and leaving.

The two boys waved and shut the door.

Kakashi looked at Sasuke. "She ruined what I was doing, and now all that I had going is..."

"Past?"

"Yeah...that..." Kakashi said as he leaned against the door; scanning the figure in front of him with a smirk on his face.

Sasuke smirked back and decided to walk away.

"H-hey! Where're ya goin'?" Kakashi asked before chasing after him.

Sasuke ran into his room and hid behind the door. _"We'll just see who surprises who now."_ He thought before seeing Kakashi run in and start to look for him. He pushed the door shut and leaned against it.

Kakashi jumped a little and turned to see Sasuke leaning against the door; arms crossed and smirking. He returned the smirk and walked over to him and pressed the Uchiha into the door; making him uncross his arms.

"_How did that backfire on me?!"_ Sasuke thought as Kakashi's lips melted into his own.

The white-haired gennin pulled away. "Didn't think that would happen did ya?"

Sasuke shook his head.

Kakashi smirked. "Nice try..."

The two looked over at the clock.

"We better go..." Sasuke said.

"Right. Let's go." Kakashi said with a nod.

The two left for the training field; jumping through trees so they could try to remain unseen. They got to the field and waited until they saw someone there.

"We're a little early..." Kakashi whispered.

"I know, but just watch..." Sasuke whispered back. He put his ear to the branch and smirked.

"What?"

"Someone's coming."

"Who?"

"Feels like Sakura..."

"Anyone else with her?"

"Naruto-sensei."

"Those two have a thing I just know it..." Kakashi said with a look of determination.

Sasuke snickered and looked a little amused. "Okay. How're you gonna prove it?"

"I dunno yet, but I will prove it."

"Okay. Want some help?"

"Yes please..." Kakashi whispered with a sheepish smile.

Naruto and Sakura sat down on the logs after putting their gear down; right under the tree Kakashi and Sasuke were sitting in.

Kakashi covered both his and Sasuke's mouth his hands so they could listen to Sakura and Naruto's conversation.

"Did you tell them when to get here?"

"Yeah. Of course I did. Maybe they're just busy and not watching the time?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah...probably..."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"So when do ou think they'll get here?"

Sakura shrugged. "I dunno...soon I hope though..."

Kakashi rolled his eyes this time and continued to listen.

"Well...while they're not here..." Naruto started; a small smirk on his face. "Maybe I could show you a thing or two..."

Both Sasuke and Kakashi's eyes widened.

"_Kakashi was right!"_

"_And there's my proof...I was right."_ Kakashi thought as a smirked formed under his mask.

Sakura's emerald eyes widened. "B-but what if they show up?!"

"They won't." The jounin said with a smirk.

Sasuke looked at Kakashi as if to ask 'now?'

Kakashi nodded and took out a kunai.

Sasuke did the same and the two tossed their weapons down in front of both the ninja below them.

Sakura and Naruto both looked up; only to see nothing. _"Nothing?"_ They thought.

"Looking for something?" Sasuke said as he crossed his arms.

Sakura gasped as soon as she heard the Uchiha's voice. "Sasuke!" She squealed.

Kakashi slung his arm around his friend's neck. "You look a little surprised." He said with a smirk.

"Well you guys came out of nowhere." The blonde-haired man said.

"That was the point..." Sasuke said before he and Kakashi walked over and put their gear in plain sight.

"So le'me get this straight..." The jounin started. "You two were here the entire time, and you didn't bother to tell us?"

"That's right." The two boys said.

The man sighed. "Alright...alright...anyways...let's get started."

The three gennin nodded. "Right."

"I'm going to go more into detail with our chakra control exercise."

"You've gotta be kidding..." Kakashi said under his breath.

"Why? What're we going to need it for?" Sasuke asked.

"You never know when you're going to need something until it happens so it's better to be safe than sorry..." Naruto said as he stood from the log he sat on and crossed his arm with a smirk on his face.

"_What's with the smirk and why is he looking just at Sasuke?"_ Kakashi thought as he got a little protective; though he was trying not to show it.

Sakura looked a little confused. _"Does he have a thing for Sasuke too?! Not just me?!"_ Sakura thought as she caught on to her teacher's smirk.

Sasuke looked at his teacher; his face showing a lot of confusion. _"What the hell is he smirking about, and more importantly, why is he smirking at me?!"_ He thought before snapping himself out of his thought. "So are we going to start training or what?" He asked with an eyebrow raised; his arms still crossed as he was pulled a little closer to his masked friend.

"I guess we should start. Alright..." He started before tossing a weapon set over onto the surface of the river; keeping it above the water with chakra.

Sakura, Kakashi, and Sasuke all looked a bit confused.

"What're we supposed to do for this exercise?" Sakura asked.

"Simple – get the weapon set from off the river's surface and bring it back. There are two others so you'll have to use your own chakra to locate them. The first person can have the easier one."

The two boys of the team looked at their pink-haired team mate.

"What?"

No response.

"Oh I get it...you want me to take that one..." She said before sighing. "Fine, but if he has us do something else with this then I get a harder one."

They raised an eyebrow each at her. "Really?"

"Yes really."

Naruto chuckled a little. "The next exercise won't be this easy. It'll be just as challenging to find them as the other two in this exercise." He said; the smirk unaltered.

Sakura sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Fine..." She said before walking out onto the water's surface and grabbing the weapon pack. She brought it back to Naruto. "Here..." She said as she handed the pack to the jounin.

Naruto smiled and took the weapon pack from the pinkette.

"So now do I just wait here?"

"Yup."

"Ok..."

Sasuke and Kakashi darted from tree-to-tree looking for a weapon pack with no luck so far.

The raven-haired ninja landed on the ground and looked around as Kakashi leapt onward. _"It has to be around here somewhere. I can feel it..."_ He thought as he put his ear to the ground to listen for object chakra. He felt stilled chakra close by and followed it. He cautiously walked forward toward the stilled chakra; feeling an odd presence nearby. _"What is this odd feeling?"_ He thought before he stopped and looked around. _"Something's here...and it's watching me."_ He continued to look around, but he stopped at a pair of golden eyes. "W-who's there?" He said; trying not to sound afraid as he stepped back a little. _"Those eyes...look right through me..."_ He thought as he stepped back more.

The golden-eyed creature approached him from the shadows; finally showing itself in a ray of light from the trees.

Sasuke froze in his tracks. _"A snake? T-then...he's back..."_ He thought as remembered when he first met the snake man. _"I can do this..."_ He thought as he stood his ground against the now-forming man. He heard an evil laugh come from the man as he finished forming in the ray of light that shown down on him.

Sasuke shivered, but he still held his ground and readied a shadow shuriken triple blade from a weapon jutsu he had learned from a scroll.

"We meet again Sasuke Uchiha. Where's your friend hm? Not here?"

"He's up ahead..."

"So he doesn't know about me showing up?"

"I would think not..."

The man evilly chuckled. "Perfect. It's just what I need to see your full potential." He said with a smirk.

Sasuke gulped. "What do you mean?"

"I only saw a glimpse of what you're capable of doing last we met, but this time there is not "dead weight" to keep me from seeing you."

"Fine..." Sasuke said as the weapon disappeared. "You want to see what I'm capable of?"

"Truly." Orochimaru said with a sly grin.

Sasuke disappeared in the blink on an eye looking like a shadow before he was out of sight. "You'll only see it if you can see me." He said; sounding like he was everywhere around the long-haired man.

Orochimaru looked around as he heard the gennin's voice all around him. _"How is this possible?"_ He thought as he stepped back a little.

Sasuke appeared behind him and swiftly kicked him in the back; sending him flying forward; disappearing just as quickly as he had appeared.

Kakashi landed on the ground and looked back. "Sasuke?" He said before noticing that the raven-haired teen wasn't behind him, let alone even still following him. _"Where'd he get off to now?"_ He thought as he looked around.

Sasuke landed in the shadows; trying to quietly catch his breath from moving so quickly and using so much chakra. He hid quickly against a thick tree so that he wouldn't be seen. _"I need to be more careful with using my chakra or I won't be able to complete this exercise."_ Sasuke thought before he froze again; feeling Orochimaru close to where he was hiding.

"I can smell your fear Sasuke. Why don't you just come out? I won't hurt you too badly..." He said; his voice full of lies and evil intentions.

Sasuke's legs wouldn't move. _"Move...c'mon he'll see you! Move!"_ He thought trying to encourage himself to move. His legs still didn't budge.

Orochimaru felt the Uchiha's fear and walked around the tree. "Hello."

Sasuke gulped and quickly made himself appear away from the man.

"You can't keep using your chakra like that or you'll use it all, and then you'll be defenseless." He said with a smirk. He formed a hand sign and smirked before his neck extended much like a snake's body with fangs. He bit down on Sasuke's neck; releasing and drawing his neck back to his body as he left a trail of blood from the holes his fangs made.

Sasuke's eyes widened as the pain from an unknown source surged from his neck and rushed through his body. He groaned in pain as he gripped the side of his neck where it hurt the most. "W-what the hell...was that for?" The rave-haired teen said; trying not to scream in pain.

"I just gave you your ticket to revenge." He said with a smirk as he wiped Sasuke's blood off his lip.

"M-my ticket? W-what're you talking about?" He asked; sounding like he's in incredible pain.

Kakashi jumped down from a tree and landed next to him. "What did you do to Sasuke?"

"I gave him his ticket to revenge."

Sasuke clenched his teeth.

"What do you mean?"

"Soon he will seek me out for power, and I'll teach him everything I know; allowing him to get his revenge for his clan and restore the peace in his mind that once was."

"He was fine! His mind was at peace! You had other intentions didn't you?!"

Orochimaru let out a manacle laugh as smirked at Sasuke. "Until we meet again Mr. Uchiha." He said before sinking into the ground.

Kakashi looked irritated before looking down at Sasuke who was now on his knees still clutching the side of his neck. "S-Sasuke?" He said as he crouched next to the Uchiha.

Sasuke was still clenching his teeth before he just couldn't hold his pain in anymore. He let out a loud pained scream; echoing through the entire area.

Kakashi put his arm around him and rubbed his back. "It'll be okay...just try to calm down..." He said.

Sasuke screamed again, but this scream wasn't as loud as the other one.

"Sasuke..." He said as the raven-haired teen fell against him. "Sasuke!"

Sakura and Naruto looked to the forest after hearing the loud scream and immediately ran to the scene.

Kakashi had picked the unconscious teen up and carried him bridal style; not paying any attention to the other two ninja who had just arrived to help.

"Kakashi! What happened?" Naruto asked as he watched the white-haired ninja walk out of the forest.

"You'll find out soon enough...stay outta my way for the time being!" _"This is my fault after all..."_ He thought as he continued to leave.

"Kakashi! Don't go!" Sakura said before running after him and grabbing his shoulder.

Kakashi jerked his shoulder away and kept walking; his eyes full of anger with a little determination. "Stay outta the way...I've got some things to take care of, and he's one of them..."

Sakura watched him leave with a worried looked set into her emerald eyes.

Naruto walked up beside the pinkette. "It only takes one thing to happen for a ninja to snap like Kakashi did. Sasuke fought hard too...he kept up what he could until he couldn't move...judging by the how worn out he looked." The man said as he put his arm around the girl's shoulder.

"Do you think Sasuke's going to be okay?"

"If he's in the care a good friend...yeah. He'll be just fine." He said with a small smile.

"And you're sure about that?"

"I trust Kakashi, and you should too. He knows Sasuke better than anyone else and will do whatever it takes to get him back on his feet and feeling better."

"Oh yeah...I forgot about that..." She said; trying not to let her teacher see that she rolled her eyes.


End file.
